


All My Tomorrows (Belong To You)

by JRW9699



Series: Together We're Unlimited [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Future Tags Contain Spoilers, Oliver Queen & Slade Wilson Friendship, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Redemption, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:48:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 63,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24083116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRW9699/pseuds/JRW9699
Summary: Oliver Queen has been called a great many things in his life, ranging from GQ’s sexiest man alive to a public menace as the Green Arrow. Quite recently CatCo. magazine officially branded him as something he had never imagined being called:Supergirl’s boyfriend.And he didn’t hate it.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow, Kara Danvers/Oliver Queen, Oliver Queen/Kara Zor-El
Series: Together We're Unlimited [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737481
Comments: 124
Kudos: 153





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ummmmm....I got bored of studying and wrote this? 
> 
> Fully gonna make y'all wait two months for the next chapter though, even if I have already written it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The covert art below was done by 3rd-eyer over on DeviantArt. Would highly advise you go and check the rest of his stuff out and give him some love, but quick warning that there is some NSFW content on his account.

_“Felicity just got a call from Earth-38, the DEO have traced the hack on their systems.” Dinah informed them_

_“And?” Oliver asked._

_“Apparently it’s led back to Cadmus.”_

_He shouldn’t have been surprised. Lillian Luthor. He had been hoping that the Daxamite invasion would have been the last they would hear from Cadmus, that she and her cohorts would have slunk off to the shadows and left them alone. Oliver felt Kara tense up next to him at the mention of Cadmus. Even if he couldn’t fully empathise with Kara’s fear of the organisation, he could understand at least some of it. Lillian Luthor scared Kara. That made her just one more problem Oliver was going to solve at the point of an arrow._

_There was a line even he drew in the sand, there had to be one somewhere. Unlike most, Oliver was just willing to cross that line when he needed to. There wasn’t a line he wouldn’t cross to keep Kara safe._

_Gently squeezing her hand to bring Kara back to focus, he turned to face her, locking eyes with the Kryptonian._

_“Ready to go save the world again?”_

**_3 Months Later – Earth-38_ **

“ ** _Left!_** _”_

The shouted instruction from Alex was the only reason Kara managed to throw up a block in time. Her left arm shot up just quick enough to send the blow out wide, narrowly avoiding what could have been a particularly vicious strike to the side of the head.

Of course, Oliver would have held back if he thought he was going to made contact.

She was not on form. Oliver could feel the lack of focus in the clumsy blocks and counter attacks Kara was throwing up against him. She didn’t usually manage to last long when they sparred anyway, with the red sun lamps leaching her powers Kara’s combat training paled in comparison to his own. Still, she normally put up a good showing, even though Kara hadn’t once managed to best him – save for one occasion but Oliver refused to count it because;

  1. Kara had cheated
  2. There were no witnesses



There was a usually steely determination in Kara when they sparred together, a determination Oliver couldn’t see anywhere in her.

Deciding to stop prolonging the inevitable, Oliver ducked low under one of Kara’s punches, rolled out behind her, and swept out a right handed attack that took Kara’s feet out from under her. Oliver turned the rest of the way around on the balls of his feet just in time to catch Kara before she hit the floor. Even if she would heal from any injuries the moment the red sun lamps were switched off, Oliver still avoided letting her get hurt if at all possible. The ends of her blonde hair brushed against the padded floor, and Oliver smiled good naturedly as he looked down at her.

There was a resounding groan from the handful of DEO agents that had been watching them spar. Ever since he and Kara had taken to training at the DEO, a fresh betting pool had started on when or if Kara might finally best Oliver. Whereas most of the agents had put money on Supergirl finally learning his style well enough to best him after at most a couple of months, Maggie had slapped down three-hundred dollars on a desk and proudly put it all on Kara not being able to best him by the end of the year. Up to that point, it seemed that Maggie would be the only one winning any money out of the pool at all.

The agents who had been watching them all filtered out of the room as Oliver and Kara both got back to their feet, and the harsh red hue of the sun lamps faded out to a warm yellow. Oliver turned briefly to look at Alex, who plucked up a towel from a pile on one table and threw it across the room to him. Plucking the towel deftly out of the air, Oliver passed it across to Kara, a rare sheen of sweat on her forehead.

“What is it?” He asked as Kara patted her face down. Kara lowered the towel from her face and fixed him with a questioning stare. “It usually takes me at least thirty seconds to put you on your ass. You’re distracted, I think you keep forgetting how well I know you, Kara.”

The Kryptonian sighed. “It’s Lena.”

Oliver had been expecting it. The moment Winn had confirmed that the hack on the DEO database had been done by Cadmus Oliver saw the inevitability chasing Lillian Luthor would bring. Lena was Kara’s best friend and – even if she didn’t know about Kara’s double life – Supergirl was leading the charge to take down her mother.

“I-she’s been helping Supergirl try to track down Lillian and Cadmus,” Kara continued after a moment. “And I can tell that’s not easy for her, but I can’t comfort her as Supergirl because we don’t have that kind of relationship, and I can do it as Kara Danvers because she’s got no idea that I _know_ that there’s something wrong.”

He had given some thought to the dilemma, over the three months they had been tracking Cadmus with every spare second he had seen the issue building. His own experiences and training might have taught Oliver to keep his other identity hidden, but even he wasn’t too jaded to realise that his teachers might have been wrong. Laurel, Thea, even his mother, had all embraced his other identity when they found out the truth. It had helped them to understand him, who he was and why he did the things he did.

“You should tell her,” Oliver spoke before Kara could continue spiralling. “You should tell Lena who you are.” At the bewildered look Kara gave him, Oliver knew he needed to give her more.

Knowing they needed to have an honest conversation, Oliver took a few steps towards the edge of the raised platform they had been sparing own and dropped down to sit on the lip. Kara quickly followed suit, taking a seat beside him. Sucking in a deep breath to centre himself, Oliver continued.

“I know I haven’t been…entirely forthcoming about some of my experiences…” He began.

“And I’ve never wanted to push you for that, Oliver.” Kara quickly responded when he paused. “I _want_ to know all of you, but you and I know better than most that people are entitled to their secrets.”

Oliver took her hand and smiled. “I know and thank you. You remember me telling you about Tommy?” He knew that she did, one more benefit of her Kryptonian physiology was that Kara’s memory was enhanced beyond all comprehension. “Before he died, Tommy found out about my secret. I told him about my secret. But I didn’t…I didn’t do it because I wanted to tell him, my back was against the wall and it was the only way to save his father’s life. And Tommy knew that, he knew that under any other circumstances I never would have told him. If Lena finds out like that, she won’t believe that you’d ever have told her willingly. Right now, the world isn’t ending, there’s no alien invasion breathing down our necks. You should tell her.”

Kara stalled for a moment, processing what he had told her.

“I—I didn’t expect you to say that.” She admitted.

Oliver wrapped an arm around Kara’s shoulders and pulled her into his side. On instinct, Kara rested her cheek down on Oliver's shoulder, and he ducked down to press a kiss to the top of her head.

“I can be there when you tell her, if you want?” He offered.

He felt Kara shake her head on his shoulder. “I still haven’t introduced you two properly, I should do it alone.”

“I meant more on a rooftop across the street ready to shoot her if she…you know.” Oliver said through a grin.

Kara bolted upright, a smile breaking through onto her lips. In an action she had done seemingly a hundred times in the last few months, Kara playfully swatted at Oliver's shoulder. With deft reflexes, Oliver caught her wrist before her hand could make contact – the solar lamps having not fully recharged her – and pulled Kara towards him. The Kryptonian slid forward and Oliver met her lips with a kiss. Kara’s free hand snaked around Oliver's back, fisting in his shirt and pulling him closer to her. Oliver responded in kind, dropping her wrist and cupping the back of her neck.

After a few moments the two broke apart, slightly breathless and both grinning wildly. Still locking eyes with Oliver, Kara slowly and deliberately ran her tongue along her lips. Before Oliver could reach out to pull Kara into another kiss, the Kryptonian got up to her feet.

“Don’t forget we’re supposed to be doing dinner with Maggie and Alex tonight.” She remined as she started towards the door.

“Do we have to?” Oliver let out a small groan of frustration that stopped her in her tracks. “As much as I…tolerate your sister and Maggie a whole dinner means I’ve got to act like a decent human being. And you know what a strain that puts on me.”

After three months the ribbing was just as much a part of their relationship as any other. Being with Kara unlocked a lightness in Oliver that he had almost forgotten was a part of him. Between Kara’s boundless lightness, Maggie’s unrelenting sass, and Alex’s pointed sarcasm, Oliver had managed to pick up something of a sense of humour of his own that extended beyond gallows humour. Befitting his childish comment, Kara threw the towel – that had still been draped over one shoulder – with just enough super-strength that it perfectly careened into his face. By the time he had pulled the offending fabric from his face to the sounds of Kara’s laughter, the Kryptonian was already halfway out the door.

“We’re staying at my place tonight, right?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Oliver got to his feet and discarded the towel to the floor. “It’ll be easier if we’re spending time with Alex and Maggie, and it’s not like it’ll take me long to get to work in the morning.”

One of the advantages of Cisco’s interdimensional extrapolators was that it made little difference to them who’s apartment they stayed in. After a night at Kara’s, Oliver could open a breach straight into his private restroom at City Hall and no one would be any the wiser that he had spent the previous night in another dimension, and likewise Kara would often breach straight to the DEO on Earth-38 from his apartment on Earth-1. Another side effect of their relationship was that they had nudged Cisco to make some modifications to their cell phones that had been rolled out among everyone in their circle, allowing them to make phone calls or send texts no matter what dimension they were in. That particular innovation had taken Team Flash only a week to work out.

The logistics of trying to live in two different dimensions had been one of Oliver’s initial concerns once he and Kara had started dating but the efficiency of Cisco’s tech had allowed him to entirely dismiss that particular concern with ease.

“I’ve got to go get some work done at CatCo. But I’ll catch you back at the apartment later?” Kara smiled.

Oliver crossed the rest of the short distance to Kara as he answered. “I might have to head back to Earth-1 for a little while if something comes up that they need me for, but I’ll be back before tonight.”

“Great,” Kara levitated off the ground to match Oliver's height and press a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ll see you tonight.”

With that, Kara turned in the air and quickly disappeared in a blur of colour and a whoosh of wind. For a moment, Oliver looked on after her, a slightly dopey smile still on his lips, before regaining his centre and starting towards the main hub of the DEO to head out. As soon as he reached mission control, Oliver noticed Winn, Alex, and J’onn all gathered around the monitor at Winn’s station.

“We got something?” Oliver asked walking up to the small group.

As if only just noticing his presence, J’onn took a step back, offered Olivera curt nod and headed off towards his office. Alex simply grinned, leaning back against the desk. Winn on the other hand, looked a little nervous. Oliver took a few steps closer and made out the image that was on the screen. It was a freeze frame, taken on one of the DEO’s internal camera just moments prior, of Oliver staring at Kara like a lovestruck teenager.

“I think it’s sweet.” Alex sniggered next to him.

Oliver fixed the agent with a glare for a moment before turning his attention to Winn, who was still sat in his swivel chair. With one hand, Oliver gripped the backrest of the seat and leant down menacingly over Winn.

“Winn,” Oliver began almost casually. “Have you ever been shot with an arrow?”

The tech guru paled. “I—uh, no…sir.”

“If you want to keep it that way, then I’d suggest that this footage…” Oliver paused for a moment, cocking his head to one side as if he were actually in thought. “…accidentally gets wiped from the DEO servers.”

“That sounds like a—a great idea. G—good note.” Winn stammered.

“Good man.” Oliver slapped Winn on the shoulder in what would have seemed a friendly gesture if he hadn’t used so much force.

“Danvers.” Oliver nodded tersely at Alex as he turned on his heel and started back towards the elevator bank.

He almost made it to the elevator before he heard Alex call out. “You know I’ve already taken a picture of that right?” 

_XXX_

The four had decided to order Chinese to Kara’s apartment, all of them had learnt the hard way that being superheroes meant sit-down meals in restaurants rarely went according to plan. Maggie and Alex had turned up before Kara had, the Kryptonian getting caught up in research for an article. So, the three of them had opened a bottle of wine and sat around the island waiting for Kara to arrive. As awkward as Oliver had felt on his first trip to Earth-38, he had grown increasingly comfortable with Maggie and Alex’s company, the former especially reminding him oddly of Tommy with her crass and tactless comments. Idle conversation occupied them for a while, until Maggie suddenly brightened up, a worrying smile crossing her face.

“So, you know that we’ve all been betting on you and Kara lately, right?” The detective began.

“Yes…” Oliver answered warily.

“Well, we’ve got another going that I need an answer on. Babe, you might want to block your ears for this one,” Maggie addressed that last part to Alex. The agent didn’t heed her girlfriend’s advice simply fixing Maggie with a curious look. “Your funeral.” Maggie shrugged.

At that moment, Kara floated in though the lounge window, clad in her Supergirl suit. Smiling at the group, Kara made her way across to them, giving Alex a one armed hug before moving around to press a quick kiss against Oliver’s lips. It worried Oliver even more that Maggie’s grin was somehow wickeder that it had been before.

“Oh, even better, she’s here.” Maggie flashed her dimples at Kara before turning her attention back to Oliver. “So, Kara’s totally a bottom, right?”

Immediately, Kara flushed a deeper red than Oliver had ever seen on her. At the same time, he found his face suddenly wet as Alex spat out a mouthful of wine, spluttering and coughing at Maggie’s crassness. Oliver himself was dumbstruck.

“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer, Sawyer.” Oliver manged after a moment.

“Oh, come on,” Maggie pushed, leaning back casually. “Ever since Super _girl_ finally became a Super _woman_ we’ve all been curious. And you know I’m gonna keep asking until you tell me.”

A strangled noise escaped Kara’s mouth. “You know I could throw you into the sun?”

“And yet…” Maggie beamed like a picture of innocence.

Knowing fully well that Maggie wouldn’t relent in her questioning until she had an answer that she deemed suitable, Oliver turned his head to look at Kara, a red flush still filling her cheeks. He met her eyes, rising one eyebrow in a silent question that Kara read well enough to offer a defeatist nod, letting him take the lead. When Oliver looked back to Maggie, her grin had doubled.

“She’s…vocal about what she likes.” Oliver offered.

Alex slapped her forehead down on the countertop, groaning loudly at the overdose of information she clearly didn’t want to know. Maggie on the other hand threw her head back and let of a laugh that would have been better suited on a Shakespearean witch. When Maggie finally calmed down, she looked back to Kara.

“Well shit, Little Danvers, you just cost me twenty bucks.” Maggie slapped a flat palm against the table in defeat.

By a small mercy, the deliver chose that moment to arrive, a knocking at the door pulled the group’s attention. Kara quickly sped through to her bedroom to change out of her super suit, while Oliver got to his feet and grabbed the small stack of bills that he had left on the kitchen countertop in preparation. Before he managed to make it to the door, Kara sped back into the room and ahead of him, beaming as she pulled open the door took the three bags of food that had been bundled up in the arms to the delivery boy. Laughing at his girlfriend’s eagerness, Oliver handed the bills over and waved off the offer of change before closing the door again.

Putting Maggie’s questioning out of mind, Kara used her super-speed to open up the bags and place the takeout containers on the island while Oliver carried across a plate for each of them. the foursome quickly piled their plates high with food before moving over to the sofas to eat.

“So, how’s Jeremiah settling in, he’s somewhere in the Andes, right?” Oliver asked after a while.

“Yeah,” Alex spoke around a mouthful of food. She paused for a few moments, swallowing before she continued. “One of the conditions of his pardon is that he can’t work for any organisation like the DEO that would give him access to confidential information. He’s decided to volunteer at a charity group in Peru that helps displaced aliens.”

Oliver was beyond pleased that his plan for Jeremiah had worked, that enlisting his help had given J’onn enough weight to go to President Marsdin and ask for the pardon. He had offered to be there himself at the hearing, to provide a character reference and attest to Jeremiah’s motivations for working for Cadmus since he had been the only person Jeremiah had willingly confessed them to. But J’onn had reminded Oliver that given he didn’t technically exist on Earth-38 and was himself regularly engaged in illegal activity (as, unlike Supergirl, he didn’t officially work for the government) his testimony wouldn’t count for much.

“Why Peru?” He asked.

“It’s where he met J’onn.” Kara supplied. “You heard that he saved J’onn from the real Hank Henshaw, right?” When Oliver nodded, she continued. “Well that was somewhere in the Peruvian Andes, so he thought there was some sort of poetry in going back there, I think.”

“But he’s agreed to fly back to walk me down the aisle.” Alex smiled, taking Maggie’s free hand with her own and beaming at her fiancé.

Kara rolled her eyes and prodded at her sister with the toes of one foot. “You know I’m still mad you proposed while I was on Earth-1, right?”

“Yup.”

Alex grinned, dropping Maggie’s hand so she could pluck up a spring roll from her plate and throw it at Kara. The Kryptonian supersped her mouth into the path of the offending piece of dim sum and caught it expertly. Chewing with a smug grin, Kara leant back at her seat as Alex flipped her the bird. Across the gap between the two sofas, Maggie caught Oliver's eyes.

“Ever wonder what mistakes we must have made in a past life to get stuck dating these dorks?” 

Oliver smiled. “I’m thankful for those mistakes every day.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, lets ignore the big delay. Reality sucks, lets move on. I’ve had some trouble picking this story up again. My initial plan was to write out the first five chapters before posting, that was I would have at least a month of weekly uploads if I ever hit a snag, but I’ve already hit that snag. I’ve decided to split chapter 2, which had already been written, in half to give myself a little more time to get back into the flow of things.  
> As always, your feedback means the world to me, so drop me a comment if you’ve got anything to say!

After a relatively quiet day at City Hall, and with the team promising that they could handle anything that came up, Oliver had decided to head back across for another night on Earth-38. Star City had been oddly quiet in the aftermath of Prometheus, even if Adrian was locked up in ARGUS custody and undoubtedly planning _something_. The quiet on the streets of his city had gifted Oliver more time than he had expected to spend with Kara, and with the team looking after Star City Oliver felt as though The Green Arrow worked harder on Earth-38 than Earth-1.

Naturally though, because the universe hated him, Oliver had been roped into going in as backup on an NCPD sting that Maggie was leading. Which was how he found himself on a rooftop in his full Green Arrow gear two hours post the time he and Kara would usually be curled up on her sofa watching Netflix and eating whatever meal he had manged to put together from Kara’s poorly stocked fridge (poorly stocked only because Kara would eat anything that was in it and not a vegetable almost immediately after Oliver went shopping).

“Remind me why you needed my help for this?” Oliver asked aloud, sensing that Maggie had joined him on the roof.

“Dude, you have to teach me how you know every time someone’s creeping on you,” The detective laughed a little, then moved to crouch next to Oliver. “And I don’t, but since Little Danvers is going to be stuck working damage control all night, I figured you’d rather actually be doing something useful with your time than just worrying about her.”

That, Oliver relented, was an annoyingly fair point. Not long after he had crossed the breech earlier that evening, Oliver had been informed by Kara that she was going over to L-Corp to pull Lena away from her work and come clean about her secret identity. Naturally, he had re-extended his offer to be there with her, but Kara had insisted it was something she needed to do alone, and of course he understood.

From everything he had gleaned about Lena Luthor, Kara could trust her with her secret. Her family history was the only smudge on her record, and Oliver knew better than most what it was like to be judged by the sins of one’s parents. Hell, if he were anything like his mother and father, he would have been responsible for _at least_ one terror attack in his life – he wasn’t counting the terror attacks committed on Star City to get to him. Lena deserved to be judged for her own actions, which made her, at the least, not an immediate treat by Oliver's reckoning.

“Alex is still pissed though.” Maggie continued.

Oliver turned to look at her. “Really?”

“Oh yeah,” Maggie chuckled. “She’s spending the whole night getting the DEO legal guys to put together as many NDAs for Lena to sign as she can.”

Oliver let a small laugh get through his lips. Usually he would be totally focused in the field, but Maggie had already told him that she could handle the situation without his help, so Oliver doubted that he would need to channel his attention the way that he did in Star City. 

“Well if the Luthors are anything like my family was, Lena’s going to have an army of lawyers tear those NDAs apart before she goes anywhere near signing them.”

Maggie grinned. “I’m still not over you being a trust fund baby.”

“ _Former_ trust fund baby, thank you,” Oliver glared at her teasingly. “I’m now as poor as any other mayor of a major metropolitan city.”

He found it oddly easy to banter with Maggie. Though, Oliver supposed, he had seen traits in her that he was fond of in both Thea and Tommy. The willingness to make a joke in any situation, unflappable in the face of his wrath. Maggie Sawyer proved to be a surprisingly good friend. It was a strange sensation. After Tommy found out his secret, he had often insisted on their usual banter, even if things had proved to be a little tense between them. Maggie acted in a similar way. No matter how many times Oliver tried to shut her down, Maggie would prop herself up with yet another overly irritating comment. In the end, she wormed her way into Oliver’s affections the same way Tommy had done post Lian Yu.

“Heads up,” Maggie switched on her radio. “Target just arrived.” Taking her finger off the transmit button, she turned to Oliver. “Soon as he makes the handoff take him down, my guys will go after the others.”

It was too easy. Criminals in National City, Oliver had learned, had become so used to the loud brute force approach of Supergirl that they had no idea how to deal with his more surgical style of vigilantism. The handoff was the same as a thousand others Oliver had seen, one metal case full of cash swapped out for another full of something presumably illegal. The moment the target Maggie had given him made the swap; Oliver fired his arrow. Maggie had insisted on subtlety, that criminals using ‘The Supergirl Defence’ were already enough of a problem in National City. So, instead of putting his trademark broadhead arrow through the man’s shoulder like he usually would, Oliver had loaded up the same diazepam gas arrow he had used on Prometheus.

The arrow embedded itself in the red brick of the alley wall the moment the target turned to head back to his car. The momentary confusion it created was long enough for the arrow to release the aerosolised diazepam stream directly into his face. The target twitched for a moment as he inhaled the gas, then crumpled unceremoniously to the floor. The group of other thugs began to run immediately, all trying to pile into the car they had arrived in to speed away. He knew that the moment he fired his first arrow Maggie’s strike team would be swarming in to take the thugs down, but Oliver did not plan to chance them getting away. As he heard the car’s engine rev into life, Oliver fired another arrow straight at the hood of the car. It made contact with the metal, hummed for a second, and the engine cut out.

He didn’t make any further moves. The rest of the officers Maggie had on standby flooded in and surrounded the car, weapons drawn. Oliver and Maggie remained at their perch on the roof as the team swept in and quickly had the group thrown up against one wall of the alley and in handcuffs. After a moment, Maggie turned her head to look at him again.

“Might have to bring you along on these more often, you’re pretty useful.”

Oliver let a scoff. “You couldn’t afford me, Sawyer.”

As the two got to their feet, Maggie’s radio crackled.

_“All unit’s officers under fire. Suspects fleeing in an HGV southbound on the Byrne highway._ ”

Maggie looked up at Oliver and grinned.

“Race you there?”

_XXX_

“Cool car chase. Very fast. Very furious.” Winn smiled, lackadaisically leaning against the central desk in the DEO ops room.

Oliver didn’t even bother to fight the urge to roll his eyes at the younger man. As much as he had become accustomed to Winn’s overly energetic responses to most every situation, Winn had in turn accepted Oliver’s dry reactions to him.

It didn’t help that he was a little bitter over not managing to apprehend the ringleader. Oliver had made it to the truck well before Maggie, his custom build bike had made sure of that. Whoever had been the ringleader of the robbery had tried to take Oliver in one on one combat after he had managed to get onto the roof of the trailer. The criminal had clear training, he was good. Oliver was better. With a swipe of his bow to the other man’s jaw, Oliver had sent the criminal careening from the truck and into the windscreen of a nearby car. By the time that the NCPD had caught up, and the truck had been stopped, the crook had disappeared.

“Any luck IDing the one that got away?” Oliver asked, placing his bow down on the table and pulling down his hood and mask.

Winn turned around to follow Oliver’s movement, and rested his elbows on the table. “I’m still running facial recognition, but so far nothing.”

“Anything else we can go on?” J’onn joined them

“My best guess is that he’s military, definite combat training, knew how to use the hardware he had too. And…that’s his.” Oliver gestured towards the red stain on the upper limb of his bow. “Maybe his DNA is already in the database.”

Pulling his features into a grimace, Winn grabbed a testing kit from a desk.

“You get me all the good presents. Supergirl never brings me blood samples.” Winn cracked a smile as he worked at the blood with a cotton swab.

“What was in the truck anyway?” Oliver asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Everything went down so fast I didn’t get chance to check.”

“Aluminium tubing.” J’onn supplied.

Oliver cocked an eyebrow at the Martian. In his years fighting criminals he had seen just about every kind of robbery there was to be seen, or so he had thought. Aluminium tubing hardly seemed worth the hassle and the hardware the mercenaries had used to pull off the theft, the equipment alone would have costed more than they could have made selling the materials.

“Right, it doesn’t seem like much, but worst-case scenario, that stuff could have been used to build an illegal nuclear centrifuge.” Winn filled in.

Little over 6 months since Oliver’s first trip to National City, and it still managed to astonish him. Though, it really should not have been all that surprising. Escalation. It seemed to be the first rule in everything they did as protectors, every time they stepped up, the criminals stepped up their game too. Alien guardians like the Supers lead to even more extreme responses from the criminal element. Why wouldn’t they build a nuclear reactor?

Oliver sighed.

He needed a drink.

_XXX_

Kara made it back to her apartment only a few minutes after Oliver had stripped out of his Green Arrow armour and into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. He hadn’t even had time to sit down on the sofa before the Kryptonian flew in through the open balcony window and swept him up in a tight hug, a foot off the ground, faster than Oliver could blink.

“Rao, Oliver are you okay?” A second later and the bear hug was over, and Kara had put him back onto the floor, her gaze turning focused, clearly checking him for injuries. “I shouldn’t have left you to cover the city while I was with Lena, I’m sorry. I—”

“Kara, stop,” Oliver grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and forced her gaze to return to his eyes. “I’m fine, relax. The guy got maybe two good licks in. I’ve not got so much as a bruise.”

That seemed to do little to calm her. “Winn said you got shot at…by a minigun!”

Oliver gritted his teeth and considered how long it would take Kara to forgive him if he “accidently” put an arrow in Winn’s shoulder to remind him not to panic Kara unnecessarily. A few unprompted massages, a handful of nights pretending to enjoy watching musicals, and as many potstickers as he could afford…maybe a month.

He had made a conscious choice not to call Kara after he had returned to the D.E.O. Knowing that Kara was trying to confess the truth about her identity to Lena Luthor he wanted to give her as much time as possible and, after all, he had managed to stop the robbery without any injury to himself or anyone else. Kara had needed the night with Lena, the truth was a difficult thing to admit to in their line of work, so Oliver wanted to give her that time.

Winn had clearly thought different.

Maybe he would make it two arrows. One for each shoulder.

“He didn’t even get close, my bike might be a write off, but I’m fine,” Oliver offered her a smile. “I’ve been doing this a long time, Kara, it’s going to take more than some jumped up idiot with a big gun to get the drop on me.”

Kara let out a sigh, then hovered up off the floor to match Oliver’s height and press a chaste kiss to his lips. “I worry.”

“I know,” Oliver found her hands and wrapped them in his own. “And I love you for it.”

That helped bring out a smile on her lips. “I love you too.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to make some tweaks to what I was originally going to post as chapter 3 because I got some ideas that wouldn't leave me alone. As a result, this isn't beta-read, so I might have to come back and make some changes to any mistakes over the next few days.  
> That said, I seem to have gotten my writing mojo back, so let's see how long I can keep that going.  
> As always, go follow my over on Twitter @JRW9699 for occasional updates and inane posting.

Oliver Queen was a lot of things. There were a lot of words the people who knew him best would use to describe him. Brooding, self-deprecating, and angry, were chief among them. Since he began dating Kara Zor-El, most of those words drifted out of use as he gained a new perspective, one provided by a woman who refused to allow Oliver to define himself by his own darkness. He was proud of those changes. The one thing Oliver had wanted almost constantly since leaving Lian Yu was to become a better man, and Kara had given him that.

One thing that he still struggled with, was providing reassurance. At the end of the day, he still considered himself a realist, and more than that he was practical. _Since it is logically impossible to expect everything, you must not expect anything_. A voice that sounded suspiciously like Talia al Ghul whispered in the back of his mind. _That way, you will be ready for it_. His training was a little too ingrained for him to be able to provide a reassurance that he didn’t entirely believe in.

Which was why trying to calm down a Kryptonian spiralling quickly into anxiety was slightly out of his wheel house.

With Lena finally knowing the truth about Kara’s identity, the Kryptonian had decided to host a small party at her apartment to introduce Lena to the ‘inner circle’. Both Oliver and Maggie had supported the idea, despite Alex grumbling petulantly at being outvoted, and so they had planned the event the immediate day after Lena had been told the truth. True to fashion, ten minutes before the guests were due to start arriving, Kara had started to spiral, and Oliver had been out of his depth almost immediately.

“What if when she finds out how many people already knew she’ll get mad? They’ve all been lying to her for more than a year now.” Kara’s latest fear sprang forth from some deep part of her paranoia.

Oliver sighed. He had already shut down three distinct lines of fear that Kara had been worrying herself down.

 _“What if Lena is actually mad at me and tells the world who I am?”_ – “Alex made her sign a bunch of NDAs, she’d be arrested immediately. And she’s not mad at you.”

 _“What if Lena was lying about being okay with me lying about my identity and she’s really mad at me and is using tonight to try and attack me?”_ – “You’ve got a federal agent, a cop, a Martian, and me all at this party, she’s not going to be able to hurt you. And she’s **_not_** mad at you.”

 _“What if Lex finds out about the party and uses it to try and hurt Lena?”_ – “See above, and add one Kryptonian.”

Oliver took a step towards Kara and grabbed her shoulders to stop her pacing. The sudden contact made the Kryptonian’s gaze snap from her feet up to Oliver’s eyes, and he offered her the warmest smile his waning patience could muster. It seemed to work, and some of the concern bled from her eyes.

“Kara, relax, breathe,” After a moment, Oliver could sense Kara had calmed a little more and continued. “When you told Lena that you’re Supergirl, you told her about the other people who knew, right?”

Oliver already knew the answer was yes. After Kara had finished checking him over for injuries the night before he had gotten the details out of her time with Lena. From everything Kara told him, Lena seemed remarkably calm about the whole thing and had taken the revelation of Kara’s double identity in her stride. Kara had also told him that she had mentioned to Lena about Alex, Maggie, Winn, and the others who knew her secret.

“Mm-hm.” Kara nodded, apparently not trusting her own voice.

“And she was fine, right?” After another nodded agreement from Kara he continued. “Then tonight isn’t going to be any different. She knows the truth about you, about the people who know your secret. The only thing she doesn’t know about is me. And that’s because I still somehow haven’t met your best friend.” He finished, lightly teasing Kara for her nervousness in introducing him to Lena.

“But what if…”

“Kara,” Oliver cut her off before the thought could fully manifest. “I _promise_ you tonight will be fine.”

It was bordering on a lie, but Oliver put every ounce of persuasion he could muster into his voice.

As much as Oliver wanted to put some trust into Lena Luthor’s apparent questionless acceptance of Kara’s double life, the more cynical part of him knew better than to just assume nothing would go wrong. He had gleamed a lot of information from his time on Earth-38, spending time around Kara, her friends, and family. Lena Luthor could be trusted.

Maggie had asked Oliver more than once how he managed to make the connections that he made, how he was able to put together impressions and estimates of people as accurately as he could on so little information. On a rainy evening, when Kara and Alex had been swept up in D.E.O. business, Oliver had explained it to Maggie over a shared bottle of whisky.

_“Say you’re going out, it’s not a bad day but you take a jacket on impulse. Later it rains. How does that work?”_

_Maggie glanced out the window at the pouring rain, then turned back to Oliver, one eyebrow cocked. “Luck?”_

_“Could be luck,” Oliver smiled a took a slow gulp of his whisky. “But what’s more likely is that systems in your mind and body that you’re not aware of measure the environment at some subconscious level and just occasionally manage to get the message through all the superego and background noise. My…training just refined it so the my superego and subconscious get along better. It’s a sense of something underlying. You make the connections and from that you can build a skeleton model of the truth. Later on, you go back and fill in the gaps. Detectives like you do it all the time, what I do is just…the amped up version.”_

Lena Luthor, from the skeleton framework Oliver had built of her, was someone who posed no threat to Kara. If anything, she could be more than helpful as an ally. Meeting her for the first time that night would allow him to go back and fill in the blanks. If he had made any mistakes, he would fix them. Likely at the point of an arrow, but he hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.

_XXX_

It was another half hour before Alex and Maggie finally arrived, and Oliver was able to retreat from having to calm Kara’s spiralling. By the time the couple arrived, Oliver had manage to provide at least rudimentary rationalisations for all of Kara’s concerns about Lena. With her sister and Maggie in the room, the later immediately teasing Kara for her nerves, the Kryptonian had more pressing matters to distract her from her anxiety, and Oliver silently passed Maggie a glass of one of the more expensive bottles of scotch he had picked up in thanks. The detective had simply thrown him a knowing wink and continued her high volume tirade of inane questions to keep Kara distracted.

“So, how bad was she?” Alex asked in a low hush as she drifted next to him.

Oliver glanced across to see Kara too occupied with Maggie to be listening in on their conversation, and answered. “That obvious?”

“It is when you know her as well as I do,” Alex smiled. “I’m sure you’re the same with Thea.”

It was something the two of them had bonded over ever since Alex and Maggie had spent time on Earth-1. After she had met Thea, and not just hearing about her through Oliver’s stories, Alex and Oliver found that they would often trade stories of their almost futile attempts to keep their kid sisters out of trouble.

“She spiralled, but I think I managed to rationalise her into a corner with it all.” Oliver nodded.

“Well, I guess that’s the best we can hope for, right?” Alex paused for a moment, taking a thoughtful sip of her drink. “When Lena gets here, she’ll calm down.”

“You sure Kara’s wrong about all that then?” The pessimist in Oliver asked.

Alex chuckled. “I’ve had a surveillance team on Lena all day, she’s not done anything out of the usual. I think we’re in the clear.”

“Is that a sanctioned use of D.E.O. resources Agent Danvers?” Oliver raised an eyebrow.

“Supergirl’s identity is a matter of national security.” Alex asserted as seriously could.

A genuine laugh came out from both of them after a beat of silence, Maggie and Kara looking across at them with puzzled expressions. Oliver waved a hand to dismiss them. Kara took the hint almost immediately, knowing it meant she wouldn’t approve of what they were laughing about. Maggie’s gaze lingered on them for a few more seconds until she turned back to Kara. After a brief pause, Alex spoke again.

“I take it you know James is coming tonight?”

Oliver fought down the urge to roll his eyes. James Olsen might have been the most baffling encounter he’d had on Earth-38, and that was saying something. During the Daxamite invasion, Oliver hardly had the time to introduce himself to the man, as wrapped up as they were in trying to save the world. Alex had just told James that Oliver knew what he was talking about and that he should listen to him. Once the invasion was over, they had hurried to Star City, and he and Kara had gotten wrapped up in each other.

When Oliver and Kara had returned to National City a few days later and told Kara’s circle about their relationship at their usual booth in Al’s Bar, James Olsen had been remarkably cold. To the others, it might have brushed off as just some stress from the previous few days, not to Oliver. Hardwired gestalt scanning read the measured distaste in the other man’s demeanour like a label stuck to his forehead. After a while, Alex had clued onto it as well. She and Oliver had agreed not to bring it up, for Kara’s sake.

“Yeah,” Oliver answered after a moment had passed. “But so long as he keeps quiet I won’t be inclined to go breaking any bones.”

Alex looked at him for a beat, and they both started laughing again.

_XXX_

James had thankfully arrived in the company of Winn and J’onn, so any awkward brush between him and Oliver was swept away on the current of the flowing conversation that filled the room. Oliver had been in the middle of a discussion with Winn about potential upgrades for his arsenal, just finishing off his first glass of scotch, when a knock at the door sounded out and Kara fell instantly silent.

Almost on autopilot the Kryptonian drifted towards the door and without hesitation Oliver dropped into step beside her, catching her empty hand with his own. The contact brought Kara’s gaze up to him. Oliver offered her a reassuring smile and Kara lips curled into a smile of her own. Hand still tangled in Oliver’s own, Kara put her drink down on the counter beside the door and pulled it open.

The rest of the conversation in the room dipped a little in volume, gazes turned towards the doorway, and the woman who stood framed there.

“I brought wine.” Lena offered with a slightly nervous smile.

Oliver had managed to get a good read on Lena Luthor in the two encounters he had with the woman on his first trip to National City. In the face of Green Arrow showing up in her office in the middle of the night she had been completely unflappable. More than that, she had laughed when Kara had asked if Oliver had scared her. Then she had been captured by the Daxamites and had gone out of her way to try and escape before he and Kara had managed to stage a rescue attempt. But stood in front of a room full of people she was supposed to be friends with, she looked almost nervous.

He could read it in Lena the same way he saw it in himself. The upbringing in a family of money, the need to present a view to the world that reflected their social status. Oliver himself had failed miserably at it, much to the chagrin of his mother and father. Lena on the other hand had clearly been a much better student of the obnoxious etiquette of wealth. Put her in a room of CEOs, facing down a vigilante, or looking at death by alien invaders and she didn’t blink. In a room of friends though…

After Oliver gently squeezed her hand to pull her back to focus, Kara let go of the death grip she had been giving him and stepped towards her friend.

“Lena, hey!” The Kryptonian beamed and pulled the other woman into a hug.

Lena returned the embrace easily and Oliver let you a sigh of relief he didn’t know he’d been holding. Behind him, the voices that had hushed on Lena’s entry returned to conversations in more normal tones. The two separated after a moment, Kara and Lena both still smiling at each other, both clearly unsure how to proceed with the new dynamic of their relationship. A few seconds passed and Lena’s eyes drifted to Oliver, who stood leaning against the wall next to them, smiling fondly at Kara’s apparent loss of social skills.

The Kryptonian followed Lena’s gaze, then beamed at Oliver. She quickly ushered Lena inside, pushed the door closed behind her, and grabbed Oliver’s hand.

“Lena, this is Oliver Queen, my boyfriend.”

Oliver extended his other hand to Lena, who shook it firmly.

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Oliver smiled at her.

Lena dropped the handshake and grinned. “Well I believe we’ve already met, Green Arrow, wasn’t it?”

Kara went almost immediately pale, but Oliver found his grin only grew. Before he or Lena could say anything, Kara let out a strangled _eek_. Lena laughed openly at her friends confusion and continued.

“Oh, Kara, come on,” She smiled. “After I found out you were Supergirl, it wasn’t hard to figure out that this mystery boyfriend of yours was also the archer in green who hasn’t seemed to leave Supergirl’s side lately.”

Oliver looked across at Kara, the colour returning to her face as she realised Lena was taking the whole thing in her stride. Thankful that Kara wasn’t about to start spiralling again, Oliver tipped his head towards Lena in a small bow of acknowledgement at how well she had put his identity together.

“Kara said you were good, I think she might have been underselling it.” Oliver said to Lena.

Her grin only deepened. “Never underestimate a Luthor, Mr Queen.”

He hadn’t. Not for a second. But Oliver let her think it anyway.

_XXX_

“Wait so you punched out a pap?” Lena laughed openly, the wine in her glass sloshing around dangerously with the motion.

“Thanks for that, Sawyer.” Oliver scolded, glaring daggers at the detective.

Maggie just laughed harder. “Blame your sister, she’s the one who told me.”

Surprisingly, Lena hadn’t allowed the revelation of Kara’s identity and the knowledge that her closest friends had been keeping the secret from her faze her at all. As soon as she had poured a drink and joined the party proper, the night had gone remarkably smoothly. All of the group aside from Oliver and J’onn had been drinking, and the added alcohol leached away any residual awkwardness in the situation. Even Kara had broken open a bottle of alien alcohol that, according to Maggie, was about the closest thing to wine that would work on a Kryptonian.

Not long after they had joined the rest of the group, Oliver quickly found himself bonding with Lena over the rigours of being raised by parents with more money than morals. The two of them had traded their experiences, with Maggie throwing in some of Oliver’s more scandalous stories, as provided to her by Thea ‘for blackmail if needed’.

“It wasn’t my proudest moment,” Oliver grimaced. “Besides I’m sure you got up to worse at boarding school.”

Lena looked down at the rim of her glass and chuckled. “My boarding school experiences have been buried under a mountain of bribes courtesy of my mother.”

Maggie’s eyes went wide for a moment, then she glanced at her own empty glass. “Alright, I need a refill but then you’re giving us some details, Luthor.”

As soon as Maggie was on her feet. Oliver turned his focus to Kara. She was deep in conversation with Alex and Winn, grinning wildly at something her sister had said. Oliver felt a warm flush go through in at the sight, thrilled that Kara was comfortable again after her spiralling prior to Lena’s arrival. His own experiences with his double life hadn’t turned out anywhere near as smoothly as Kara had managed it, but if it took him learning from his mistakes to prevent Kara from having to do the same, he was happy to have made them. After Tommy, Oliver knew how difficult it could be to lose a best friend over a double identity. To see Kara and Lena so unfazed by the truth of Supergirl was more than reassuring for him.

A thought that had been rattling around in his mind presented itself again at that. The idea hadn’t been fully formed until that moment, just a faint hint on the winds of intuition that he had programmed into him. It had been borne on his initial experiences with Lena Luthor back during his first trip to Earth-38, and Kara’s retelling of how accepting Lena had been of her identity brought it back up to him once again.

“You already knew, didn’t you?” Oliver asked, turning to Lena who sat beside him on the couch.

Lena raised one perfectly groomed eyebrow. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“I don’t know how much Kara’s told you about me, but I’ve been living _this_ life a lot longer than her,” Oliver began. “You’re far too calm about this not to have already suspected the truth. Kara’s told me a lot about you, genius level IQ, and what… 3 PhDs? I’d be a little disappointed if you hadn’t figured it out.”

A grin broke out across Lena’s lips. “The first day we met. She told me she flew to my office on a bus.”

Oliver couldn’t suppress a laugh. Lena joined in almost without pause, and Kara threw them a curious glance across the room. Oliver offered her a bright smile in answer, and Kara seemed to take reassurance in how well the two of them were getting along.

“And Diggle tells me _I_ can’t keep my identity a secret.” Oliver chuckled to himself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like I've definitely got my mojo back, so that's something.  
> As with the last chapter, this hasn't been beta-read, so feel free to let me know about any glaring mistakes, I'll be coming back over the next few days to patch those up.

Peace, it seemed, was almost as hard to find on Earth-38 as it was in Star City. On his first few forays onto the other world, Oliver had found National City strangely tranquil in comparison to his own home. Sure, within days of being there Oliver had fought a being from the 5th Dimension, an underground terrorist organisation, and the cybernetically enhanced estranged father of the woman he was now dating. Between that chaos though, the city had seemed calm.

After a few more months there, Oliver had come to realise that National City was no more calm than Star City at all. In fact, it seemed to prove to be even more chaotic. He had hardly had time to come to his senses and begin cooking breakfast the morning after the party when Winn had called him with a positive ID on the crook that he had tried to take down two nights prior.

Which was how Kara and Oliver found themselves in the D.E.O. at 6:30 in the morning, trying not to laugh at the obviously hungover Winn slouched over his computer.

“So, you were able to trace the merc with his blood?” Kara asked after a few moments of silence.

Winn nodded, seemed to regret the sudden movement, then pulled the files up on the main screen. “Meet Robert DuBois, aka Bloodsport.”

“What have we got on him?” Oliver took a step closer to Winn’s monitor to read the data scrolling along the screen.

Winn tapped a key and answered. “Well he blew up half of City Hall a few years ago, and he’s been AWOL ever since.” He turned to face Oliver. “You were right about him being ex-military, used to be stationed at Fort Harrison, like twenty minutes outside the city.”

“He’d have knowledge of all the ins and outs of the base,” J’onn supplied. “He could sneak on, locate weapons, technology, anything he wanted to.”

Something tugged in the back of Oliver’s mind, a thought struggling to take shape. Stealing military equipment didn’t line up with a botched theft of aluminium rods. A bomber for hire wouldn’t have need of a nuclear reactor. Either’s Winn’s evaluation of the use for the aluminium was wrong, or DuBois had taken something else that had gone unnoticed. Kara seemed to notice that he had slipped into thought and gave him a questioning look. Responding with a slight shake of his head to tell her he didn’t have anything solid, Oliver turned to Winn.

“Call DuBois’s CO, see if we can’t get a last known.”

The agent nodded again, winced, and picked up his tablet. Oliver was about to move to gear up in case they found any intel to work with, but Winn stopped him before he could make it more than two paces.

“Woah, woah,” The sudden outburst caused all eyes to snap to Winn. “The base server is down. The system is scrambled. Somebody hacked this.”

Oliver turned to Kara and nodded, then gritted his teeth. The familiar, uncomfortable storm of super-speed surrounded him, throwing him into a brief haze of dizziness, and then Oliver was clad in his full Green Arrow gear. A second later, Kara took his hands trapeze style and was speeding them both across the National City sky.

Oliver leapt into action the moment Supergirl touched them down. For an operational military base, Fort Harrison was oddly quiet. It had seemed odd to him that DuBois would attack a military base during the day, but the apparent lack of any serious armed presence made him think there was some logic to it. Whatever the base was storing, it was high clearance enough to warrant a minimal crew in order to keep eyes away from it. That brought up new concerns for what DuBois was after.

He and Kara picked their way up the base slowly, checking on each of the bodies they came across along the way for signs of life. DuBois appeared to not have been killing at all. It made sense, Oliver supposed, better to not piss off the military any more than necessary.

The trail on unconscious grunts led them to an aircraft hangar that was, save for a few stacks of storage crates, completely empty. Trained caution sprang to life in Oliver, muscles tensing, head on a swivel ready for anything out of the ordinary.

He felt that first attack before he saw it.

A feeling that something was not quite right trickled through his senses. Something changed in the atmosphere of the room, he could almost smell the scorching, the crackling static. Oliver figured it out increments of a second too late. By the time he started turning to face Kara, the energy weapon had lashed out from somewhere unseen and sent her flying back 50 paces across the room.

Oliver’s gaze followed Kara as she flew backward, then combat readiness forced a practiced cool over him. Whatever weapon DuBois was using, it was invisible to some degree. He dropped into a roll, narrowly avoiding the beam that shot out and lashed at the ground where he had been stood a second ago. As soon as he was on his feet again, Oliver ripped two of the capsules from the straps that held his quiver to his back and threw them at the ground between him and the source of fire. The first exploded in a haze of smoke, and the second fired out micro flares. Hoping it would be enough to scramble whatever targeting systems DuBois had, Oliver took off towards Kara.

She was back on her feet before he made it to her, and when a cursory glance over her showed no obvious injuries, the two started towards the weapon again. Kara stopped a few paces from the smokescreen Oliver had dropped down, squared her shoulders and fired off a burst of her heat vision. The beams of light collided with some invisible object a few feet above the source of the energy weapon that had fired at them. The cloak broke down, shimmered, and a Daxamite warship sat in the hangar before them.

Oliver saw Kara visibly tense up as the warship was revealed. In the chaos of the invasion, Oliver hadn’t even noticed that they had managed to force a Daxamite ship to land. It certainly hadn’t been on the D.E.O.’s list of priorities. It explained the lack of troops protecting the base. The skeleton crew had been suspicious, but it made sense that whoever had seen the warship captured would want as few people to know about it as possible. 

In the brief seconds after the warship came into view, Oliver saw a whole torrent of emotions well up in Kara. Over three months since they had stopped the Daxamite invasion and the scars were almost just as raw as they had been that night. Kara had gotten better. At the beginning, she’d had nightmares a little too often, there were a few too many nights when Kara woke up in a cold sweat for him to brush it off. Alex had told him the nightmares were a common occurrence when Kara had first arrived on Earth, but they had seemed to have gotten past the worst of it. The Daxamite invasion brought it all back to the surface. But, they had gotten through it, together.

The sight of a Daxamite warship brought it all back up.

Concern for Kara overrode his combat conditioning, and Oliver’s peripherals slipped away from the Daxamite ship for a second too long. Before either of them could react, the energy weapon charged up again and spat out at him. For a brief moment, Oliver was vaguely aware that his feet were no longer on the ground and then the light around his eyes flickered away.

_XXX_

Oliver had woken up by the time Kara had flown the two of them back to the D.E.O. but she had still insisted he let Alex do a full medical examination, even if her own X-Ray vision hadn’t turned up any obvious internal injuries.

“Kara, for the last time, I’m fine,” Oliver grumbled as she coaxed him onto one of the bed’s in the infirmary. “I’ve been shot enough in my life to know when I’ve actually taken some damage.”

That, clearly, wasn’t the right response. There had been more than a few nights when Kara had asked Oliver the stories behind his scars. Unlike some of the women he’d been with, he was never self-conscious of them around Kara, something about her provided a security he wasn’t used to. Laurel, McKenna, even Felicity, they’d all been difficult for him to let in, to explain the truth to. To them, his scars were damage. Kara had insisted that all they did was show how strong he really was. Though, Oliver wasn’t sure he believed that sentiment in its entirety.

They still worried her though, they reminded her just how mortal he was compared to her.

“Oliver,” Kara levelled him with a glare that she had definitely picked up from spending too much time around him. “Either you let Alex look you over now, or I hold you down and get one of the less friendly medics to come in here and stick you with needles for an hour.”

“You know, I’m sure there’s still some Kryptonite hidden around here that J’onn forgot about.” Oliver grumbled.

Kara fixed Oliver with another glare, and he sighed.

“Fine, fine.” He sighed, hands held up in defeat.

Twenty minutes later, Alex sent him on his way with a clean bill of health and a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. The trio were making their way down the stairs and back into the ops room as J’onn and Winn rounded the corner, the former shouting into his phone.

“…You can rest assured I will speak to the President, General Lane. And if anything happens as a result of your overreach, you mark my words, she’ll have your stars.”

“Respect!” Winn grinned beside the Martian.

Alex, Oliver, and Kara joined the two at the central table as J’onn spoke.

“Whilst I appreciate the nod of confidence, Agent Schott, do you have any words that might actually help me?”

Winn tapped a few times on his tablet. “Words, no. Pictures, definitely. I had the military supplier DuBois robbed inventory what was taken. It turns out it was not just aluminium rods.”

The main screens filled up with a rotating holographic of a device Oliver didn’t recognise.

“That’s a high pressure regulator.” J’onn supplied. “The aluminium rods were just a cover. That was his real target.”

One more piece of information slipped into place and Oliver nodded to himself as he put it together. He might have been right about the aluminium rods being a misdirect, but something else still seemed to be missing. 

“What would DuBois need it for?” Oliver asked.

“Well, he also stole the cloaking device from the Daxamite ship.” Winn explained.

Oliver had been out cold at that point. Kara had filled him in on the details while Alex had been looking him over. As soon as he had been taken out, Kara had rushed to catch him out of the air, and DuBois had slipped out the back of the warehouse while she was distracted. His first instinct was to call her out for being more concerned about him that stopping DuBois, but Oliver had hesitated. He would have done the same. It was his concern for Kara that had led to him getting taken out by the Daxamite weapon in the first place.

“And how exactly do these two things go together?” J’onn followed up.

Alex got there first. “With the regulator he could stabilise the internal pressure of an F-18 or a B-52 to withstand the force emitted by a cloaking shield.”

“Able to retrofit it into a fully cloaked aircraft,” Winn was the first to answer. “Our equipment could not detect that, even Supergirl’s X-Ray vision couldn’t pick it up.”

“He could drop a nuke from the sky and no one in National City would know.” Alex finished the thought.

A brief flicker of Slade’s siege on Star City scattered through Oliver’s memory, Amanda Waller threatening to bomb the city to stop his army getting away. 

“Agent Schott, I want every flight in and out of National City searched for munitions. Air and Space.” J’onn ordered, Winn broke off with nodded assent. “Alex, put your team on tactical alert. Supergirl, Oliver, be ready to move on this as soon as we get anything.”

Oliver started running through possible scenarios. Alex’s concern of a nuclear weapon was a worst case scenario, one Oliver quickly deemed to be unlikely. As far as his profile indicated, DuBois was relatively small scale, political action, bombing for hire, and an abnormally low body count for his profession. Nuking a whole city out of existence seemed too extreme for him. The bombing at City hall implied political views, and with National City being one of the most alien friendly places on Earth-38, second only to Metropolis, those politics seemed obvious.

Then the realisation hit him.

“The statue unveiling.”

J’onn and Alex froze in place and turned back to look at him. Questioning looks were evident on both their faces. Oliver spared a quick glance at Kara, and from the look on her face, she’d figured it out too.

“Lena’s unveiling the new Girl of Steel statue down at the waterfront in a few hours,” Oliver clarified, and watched the realisation come over Alex and J’onn too. “It’s the only event going on in National City over the next few days that’s going to draw enough of a crowd to be a target.”

Kara almost immediately started towards the balcony. It didn’t take Oliver a second to figure out her concerns.

“We’ve got to talk Lena into postponing the unveiling.” She said, the worry clear in her voice.

Oliver reached out a cautious hand, and took Kara’s own. “We need to warn Lena, but she isn’t going to be able to call the event off, it’s the Mayor’s office running it.” Before Kara could object he continued. “Kara, our best chance of catching DuBois is to let the unveiling go ahead.”

The reasoning settled into her, Oliver watched it take form behind her eyes.

_XXX_

It was nothing short of luck that no one had been seriously injured in the attack on the waterfront. It had taken them a little too long to work out that DuBois’s attack had been coming from the sea instead of the sky as they had expected. Between the D.E.O. and NCPD on the ground, along with J’onn and Oliver in full costume, they had been able to keep the civilians safe while Kara wrenched the submarine out of the water.

A conversation with Lena once DuBois and his team had been locked up in the D.E.O. holding cells opened a new door to them. Morgan Edge. Oliver had heard the name more than a few times over the previous three months. Along with Supergirl aiding the construction work where she could, Edge had been the bankroll behind the rebuild of National City post-Daxamite invasion. By all accounts he was a run of the mill corporate giant, but Oliver had seen more than enough of those in his life to have been unsurprised when Lena voiced her suspicions about him being the man behind the attack.

It made enough sense. Edge had been pushing to have the waterfront redeveloped since the reconstruction project began, and the statue was just one more reason for people not to want his idea to go ahead. Having a known domestic terrorist bomb the waterfront out of existence was a clever way to get around needing planning permission to force a few hundred people from their homes. Almost instinctively, Oliver had offered to put the fear of God into Edge until he talked, but Kara had turned him down.

She was right, Oliver supposed. National City was her home ground after all, best not to have the criminals afraid of someone who wouldn’t always be there to scare them.

A few hours later, just as the last orange rays of the afternoon sun were bleeding out to black on the horizon, the group retreated to Al’s Bar for a drink to celebrate a job well done. Oliver had offered to get the first round and, after piling all the drinks carefully onto a tray, returned to the table midway through Winn, Alex, and Lena discussing some scientific principal that had been thrown out by a piece of alien technology discovered by the D.E.O. A fond smile crept onto his lips as Oliver slid into the booth and sat beside Kara, the conversation breaking for a moment in whoops of gratitude for the drinks.

Oliver plucked his own glass of scotch off the tray between forefinger and thumb and took a sip, humming in approval at the taste. Earth-38 differed in many ways from his own world, one of the stranger differences was a whole range of whisky that he had never heard of before. Something he and Maggie had bonded over.

Without missing a beat as she picked up her drink, Maggie held her bottle of beer out for a toast. “To Kara, for carrying a whole damn submarine on her back.”

Kara blushed shyly, and Oliver took her hand under the table as the group cheered their assent. Noticing Kara’s shyness, Oliver prompted for a change of conversation.

“So what did Edge say when you went to see him?” He asked.

Kara sighed. “Denied the whole thing of course, but I could tell he was lying.”

“We’ll find a way to get to him,” Lena jumped in. “Speaking of that cretin though…I spoke to Edge about CatCo.”

For a beat, Kara’s eyes went wide. “Oh Rao. With everything going on the last few days I totally forgot. Tell me you convinced him not to buy CatCo.”

“Well, you can’t convince a bully like that of anything.” Lena let a small smile creep onto her face. “So…I bought it.”

“You’re kidding… are you kidding?”

The rest of the group drifted into silence as they watched the confusion drawing up in Kara’s face. Oliver had to bite down a smile at the overwhelming aura of shock that consumed her.

“Pretty badass right?” Lena grinned openly.

Kara started beaming herself, entirely unsure of how to respond. Clearing her throat across the table, Maggie stole the group’s attention once again. Oliver rolled his eyes, already seeing what the detective was about to say.

“I would like to revise my earlier toast… to badasses all around!”

The group cheered again, taking another swig of their drinks, and Oliver wrapped and arm around Kara’s shoulders, tucking her into his side. Oliver felt a well of something akin to contentment well up in a smile across his face. Comfort was almost too easy for him to come across with Kara around.

Too easy.

The thought didn’t get another second to manifest before Oliver felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. Unwrapping his arm from Kara, and placing his drink down on the desk, Oliver grabbed the phone from his pocket, and got to his feet, taking a step away from the table. His eyes scanned over the contact ID, and he frowned as he answered.

“Lyla?”

“ _Oliver,_ ” The voice that came back through the phone was haggard. “ _We’ve got a problem. It’s Prometheus, he’s escaped._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me for that cliffhanger?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one is pretty much purely exposition for the next chapter, but it needed its own chapter so that the bulk of the Chase incident doesn't feel overly bloated. Can't really say I'm a huge fan of this one, but it all needed to be done.   
> As usual, this isn't beta-read, so feel free to point out any mistakes you catch and I'll come back and patch them up over the next few days.

There was hardly any explanation Oliver gave before barrelling out of Al’s bar and setting off towards the D.E.O. There was something on his face that Kara didn’t recognise, a kind of fear, a kind of hate, something that frightened her. She had seen Oliver be intimidating a dozen times, she understood why criminals were afraid of him. Something about the shift in his demeanour as soon as he got that phone call frightened her, not of Oliver, but _for_ him.

All he had told them was that they needed to get to Star City as soon as possible, and so Kara, Alex, and Maggie had instantly agreed, sensing the seriousness of the situation. Lena had volunteered to join them, both excited at the prospect of visiting another reality and wanting to help however she could. As Kara watched Oliver almost silently don his gear, all-but ignoring all of her questions and worried looks, she knew whatever was awaiting them on the other side of the breach wasn’t going to be good.

The five of them crossed through the breach into The Bunker, and found some of Oliver’s team, along with a woman she had never seen before waiting for them.

“Lyla, what happened?” There was a subtle rage building in Oliver’s voice that didn’t escape any of them. 

The woman answered without pause. “Less than an hour ago, Black Siren and Artemis broke Chase out of ARGUS custody. Killed a dozen of my men in the process.”

Oliver stepped up onto the central platform to join them, and placed his bow down on the desk with enough force that Kara almost thought the glass would shattered under it.

“You said he took hostages, who?”

It was John who answered. “Felicity, Quentin, Thea…” He trailed off for a moment, and in it Oliver sprang into action.

“We need to figure out where they were taken, Adrian must have left—”

“Oliver.” John cut over him, then his tone softened. “Adrian didn’t just…listen, man…he took William.”

That name stopped Oliver in his tracks. Kara watched almost as if in slow motion as the colour drained from his face, and for a moment she thought he might just collapse there and then. One shaky hand grabbed onto the edge of the desk, and Oliver lowered himself down into a chair, breathing jagged. Kara took a tentative step towards him, cautious as Oliver seemed to be drawing up into himself. Stepping up beside him, Kara reached a hand out and without hesitation Oliver took it, his grip strong enough that Kara was positive she’d be bruised without her powers.

“Oliver,” She began softly. “It’s okay, whatever this is we can handle it.”

Despite the death grip on her hand, Oliver refused to look at her. Kara glanced up and met John’s eyes, who shook his head fractionally, a look of regret painted across his features.

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” John again. “I know you didn’t want the truth to come out like this but…”

Finally, Oliver’s attention snapped up to Kara. There was a storm of emotions behind his eyes, and Kara struggled to keep track of which one was pushing itself to the surface. After a moment, fear seemed to take over. That alone stunned her, she had never seen Oliver afraid before. Even during the Daxamite invasion, with the odds stacked up against them. Even when Rhea had her beaten and Oliver had rushed to her aid, he hadn’t looked afraid. Seeing that look on his face was like looking at a different man.

“Kara, I-I should have told you sooner. I’m sorry. I just—it never seemed like the right time…”

Kara squeezed his hand gently to cut off his spiral. “Oliver, it’s okay, whatever it is. I just…who’s William?”

Oliver closed his eyes for a moment, and Kara thought there was a hint of a tear building in one of them. Opening them again, he met her eyes.

“He’s my son.”

For a moment Kara couldn’t control her own surprise and super-hearing picked out a barely audible gasp from one of the three stood behind her. A son? Kara knew about some of his past relationships, Felicity and Laurel. Oliver had explained some of his past to her, and Barry had helped to fill in some of the other gaps as best he could, but even he didn’t know all that much about Oliver’s history. She knew for sure neither Felicity or Laurel had a child, and so there must have been someone else Oliver had never mentioned.

How could he have a child that she didn’t know about? Over the near four months they had been together, they had spent a lot of time in each others company, and Kara couldn’t think of any time anywhere in that where Oliver could have been away with his son.

“I wanted to tell you so many times,” Oliver continued, and Kara snapped out of her thoughts. “His mother and I agreed he shouldn’t know I’m his father, that they’d be safer if they stayed away from me,” He answered the question as if he had read it on her face. “I’m so sorry I never told you.”

“No, Oliver,” Kara swung around so she was in front of Oliver, and crouched down to drop to eye level with him. “You have nothing to apologise for. I can’t image what you must be going through right now, but do not add this to your guilt, okay? I understand why you didn’t tell me.”

As Kara talked with Oliver, John drifted across the room towards Alex, Maggie and Lena, the three of them still in shock at the revelation that Oliver not only had a son, but had an enemy who hated him so deeply as to drag his son into their fight. Reaching the trio, John offered Maggie and Alex a nod of greeting, and held a hand out to Lena.

“John Diggle.”

“Lena Luthor.” She shook the offered hand.

“So I suppose you guys want an explanation, right?” John asked with a wisp of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.

Maggie answered first. “I mean, I get Oliver keeping his kid a secret. It sounds like there’s some complicated stuff going on there. But why does he seemed so convinced that Kara’s going to hate him for lying?”

John sighed a little before answering. “You guys know a little about the island right?” Maggie and Alex nodded, but Lena stayed silent behind them. “Before that, Oliver wasn’t always a…moral person. He got a girl, Samantha, pregnant, and his mother gave her a check for a million dollars, on the condition that she told Oliver that she lost the baby and got out of his life for good. A little over a year ago, Oliver saw Samantha and her son in Central City, and he figured out that William was his son. Samantha agreed to let Oliver have a part in William’s life, but only if William never found out that Oliver was his father and Oliver told no one about him. Felicity found out a little while later and broke off their engagement.”

John saw Alex’s face turn a little red with anger.

“That wasn’t Oliver’s fault!” She hissed, trying to keep her voice low to not catch Oliver’s attention. “His child was practically being held hostage. Did she really expect Oliver to choose her over his only son?”

John nodded gravely. “And she still left him. They never did manage to patch things up properly, and then he met Kara. I think Oliver loves her more than anything other than William, but she’s got a stricter set of morals than Felicity ever had. After everything between the two of them, can you blame Oliver for being worried about Kara reacting the same way?”

The trip let that wash over them for a few moments, John staying silent to let them work through it.

“Where’s William’s mother now?” Lena asked after a few moments.

John grimaced. “We think Chase got her too. He left behind a video message when he escaped from ARGUS, of William begging for help, playing on a loop. We sent a team to their home but there was no one there.”

“So that’s five hostages, one of which is Oliver’s son,” Maggie spoke in a tight voice. “Do you have any idea where they are?”

“Not yet,” John sighed. “We know Chase escaped in a chopper, but we haven’t been able to track it.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “With all this tech?

“Well Felicity is the only one who really knows her way around this stuff.” John admitted.

Lena found her centre, and took a step forward. “I can figure it out, just give me a little time.”

“Alright, if you think you can—” John trailed off at the sight of Oliver leaping to his feet on the periphery of his vision.

Across the room, Oliver had leapt up from the chair he was still sat in, almost knocking Kara over in the process. With a fluid motion that seemed almost a blur to the rest of the people in the room, Oliver had wrenched open one of the desk draws, pulled out a handgun, and had it aimed at a new entry. Stood on the far side of the room, a grin on his face, was Malcolm Merlyn.

Kara was on her feet in an instant. The new entry was completely unfamiliar to her, but she could sense the rage emanating from Oliver. In seconds, the rest of the people in the room had drawn weapons and had come to join them.

“I see your sense of hospitality remains intact.”

A snarl crept from Oliver’s lips. “You are not welcome here, Malcolm.”

“What are you going to do, Oliver? Cut off my other hand?”

Oliver took a step towards Merlyn, but the others stayed in place. “Maybe. You going to tell another person about my son?”

The news about William being taken by Chase was crashing down on him, and Oliver could feel his anger bleeding out beyond the limits of his much vaunted control. The hate he still felt for Malcolm notwithstanding, Oliver could tell his anger was coming out in waves, directed at the wrong person. It didn’t slow him down. Something deep inside him begged for him to shoot, to finally put Malcolm down, to keep his family safe. In that moment, Oliver didn’t know if he was going to shoot Malcolm or not.

Malcolm read real intent. 

“Last time I was down here, I saved your life.”

Something cracked in Oliver then. “Do you think that gives you a pass for serving up William to Damian Darhk?”

There was a name that Kara did know. One of the conversations she’d had with Oliver about his past had led to him telling her about a number of his allies. Laurel Lance among them. He’d told her about Damian Darhk then, a man who possessed true magic and had almost succeeded in destroying the world in nuclear fire.

“I’m sorry about that, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I let my emotions get out of hand. That is all in the past. The only thing I’m concerned about is saving my daughter,” Malcolm’s gaze turned to Kara. “Who might not have been taken if you weren’t so busy parading around in a different universe with your new girlfriend.”

Oliver’s gun arm dropped as he took in the revelation that Malcolm knew about Earth-38. The thoughts ran through his mind at conditioned speed, leaping from the framework of suspicion and information. If Malcolm knew about Earth-38, then there was every possibility that Chase could too. He seemed to know everything else about Oliver, and why else wait six months if not to gather information on the new reality that Oliver was spending so much time in? Maybe he knew about Kara, about Kryptonite. Maybe he could hurt her.

Then again, why take Felicity? The people Chase had taken made sense. William, his son. Thea, his sister. Quentin, the closest thing to a father he had. And Felicity, as far as Chase knew, the woman he loved.

Stood beside him, Kara felt the anger give way to fear once again.

“Oh do relax, Oliver,” Malcolm continued. “The only reason I even know about the existence of other worlds is thanks to the libraries at Nanda Parbat, Ra’s had a rather extensive collection of books on the subject. Other planes of existence, alternate realities, he was rather enthralled by the idea. Your precious alien is perfectly safe, from Chase at least.”

Without a beat of hesitation, Maggie, Alex, and Lena all stepped forward, putting themselves between Kara and Malcolm. Even with the handgun down by his side, Oliver felt his nerves twitching to raise the weapon at Malcolm again. He fought down the urge, seeing the look of concern that Kara was giving their friends out of the corner of his eye. For a few long seconds, no one said anything or made a move. Malcolm coolly eyed the trio who had stepped towards him, and all three glared daggers into him for threatening Kara. After a moment, the Kryptonian stepped forward.

“Hey,” She began softly, stepping up beside her sister. “This isn’t helping anyone. We need to focus on finding William and the others.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Miss Danvers,” Malcolm agreed smoothly. “I’m glad to see Oliver is finally dating a woman with some sense.”

Oliver stepped forward then. “Let me make one thing clear Malcolm. I’ll let you stay and help, because I know you’ll go after Thea anyway, and at least here I can keep an eye on you. But you do anything I don’t like, put anyone I care about in danger, and I will kill you without remorse. Do we understand each other?”

Malcolm grinned. “Better than ever.”

It took Lena a little under ten minutes to track down Chase.

“Chase’s helicopter flew to an abandoned airfield in Dawn Valley Utah,” She informed the group. “Then five minutes later a C-130 took off from the same field on a vector of 2-7-0.”

“Due west, that would bring him back to Star City,” Oliver commented. “He’s smarter than that. We’ve got to be missing something.”

Lena nodded, and turned to face them. “Yeah, I’ve got a keyhole satellite scanning for thermal signatures to pick the plane back up, but it might take a while.”

Before any of them could say another word, the computer behind the group beeped out a warning. Malcolm was the first to react.

“Are you expecting someone?”

Oliver turned to face him. “Yes, I am. Because Chase is working with at least, Black Siren, Evelyn Sharp, Talia al Ghul, and whatever army she’s currently commanding. And I’m not ruling out the idea that Chase knows about Kara, and I won’t risk her life on your word that he doesn’t.”

“Who else could you have possibly reached out to?” Malcolm asked, a wry smile on his face.

The elevator doors slid open, and Nyssa stepped through them.

“Husband.” She nodded in greeting.

Maggie got there first. “ ** _HUSBAND!?_** _”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've managed to put out a good few updates over the last week or so, but I'm going to have to take a bit of a break because I've got some stuff I need to do IRL over the next few days. The next chapter should be out around this time next week.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back. Sorry for the crazy delay all, but I've been laid up with a grim flu the last two weeks, which really sapped my motivation to write. Good news is, I've got this chapter done, and I've fully planned out the next 3, with the 4th well under way. That means that this fic has a decided plot and direction until the Crisis on Earth-X event.   
> That said, I do want to check in with you guys again about that. My current plans are to go for a SnowBarry route over with Team Flash since I've had a weakness for that ship for years. Beyond that though, if there are any changes to the canon you'd like to see included, let me know in a comment, and I'll see if it's something that could work with my plans going forward.

_It never rains but it pours._

The sentiment had never seemed more appropriate to Oliver before. Chase had taken the people closest to him, Kara had found out about William in a way that nearly destroyed him, and Nyssa, to top it all off, had announced their marriage in front of the woman he loved and her family. The universe really did have it out for him.

“It’s not…” Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s not a real marriage.”

That seemed to do little to placate Maggie and Alex, who both fixed him with threatening glares. Kara, on his other side, remained uncharacteristically quiet. After finding out about William, Oliver supposed, a potential marriage must have seemed almost casual.

“It is under League law.” Nyssa added stoically, not breaking her gaze away from him for a second.

“And you dissolved the League. No more League, no more marriage,” Oliver argued, before turning back to Maggie and Alex. “Even before that it was…look it isn’t important right now.”

That answer seemed to stun them just enough for the shock to wear off, giving Oliver a chance to get control of the room again. They were already taking too long. Chase had taken his hostages almost five hours prior, and the longer they waited to go after them the more impatient Chase was going to become, the more chance that he would do something destructive. Oliver knew they needed to move faster.

“Nyssa, this is Alex and Maggie,” He indicated the two women stood to his left, then to Kara. “And this is Kara, my girlfriend.”

Nyssa approached the group, spared a glance at Maggie and Alex, then turned her focus onto Kara. For a long moment, Nyssa looked her up and down, eyes furrowed at the Supergirl regalia she wore. Clearly, Nyssa didn’t approve of the outfit. Oliver understood the thought himself. He had always thought Kara’s uniform seemed a little impractical. After another beat of silence, Nyssa simply hummed her disapproval and turned back to Oliver.

“And I assume you didn’t invite me here to introduce me to your girlfriend.”

“No,” Oliver shook his head. “It’s Adrian Chase, he’s taken hostages…William,” That drew a reaction from Nyssa. Even if she was an assassin, there were rules of engagement, they both understood that. Taking a child was crossing a line. “He’s working with Talia.”

That arose something new in Nyssa. The only time Oliver had ever seen true anger in her had been around Sara’s death. There wasn’t much he knew about the relationship between the Al Ghul sisters beyond Talia’s excommunication from the League, but from the look on Nyssa’s face there was no love lost between the two of them. From what Oliver had observed of Talia, she had learnt a lot in her time since leaving Ra’s, and he had only just been able to defeat the Demon’s Head himself. Nyssa was his best chance of taking Talia down and saving William and the others. The anger in her eyes confirmed he made the right choice.

Before Nyssa could offer him an answer, Lena called out to them.

“I’ve got Chase’s C-130,” Oliver was by her side in an instant, looking over the flight data on the screen. “It flew out over the coast, then banked southerly twelve degrees, after that I’ve lost it again.”

He put the pieces together immediately. It shouldn’t have surprised him. Chase knew almost everything about him, and everything else Talia could have told him. In a twisted way, it made sense, it was where everything began. The decisions that lead to the Hood, to the mission, to him killing Justin Clayborne. Part of him had hoped he would never have to go back.

“Oliver, what is it?” Kara was by his side, reading the concern on his face, hand lightly brushing against his arm to try and calm him.

“He’s taken them to The Island.”

He felt more than heard the reactions of his team. Even without turning around, Oliver sensed the stiffness that filled the room. Malcolm And Nyssa were the only people in the room who really knew about Lian Yu. Malcolm had researched the island himself after he learnt Oliver’s secret, and Sara had likely told Nyssa as much as she could. To the rest of them, The Island was as much a mystery as the nature of the universe. Even Kara, who Oliver had told more about his time there than anyone else knew hardly anything. All they knew was that Lian Yu was the closest thing to Hell on Earth that could be found – almost literally if Constantine was to be believed.

The Island was another risk on top of Chase. Even after all the time he had spent there, Oliver guessed he had explored less than half of it. Lian Yu was fraught with dangers; landmines, traps left behind by him and Slade, all manner of dangerous plant life, and Oliver had no doubts in his mind that there was even more besides. On top of that, Constantine had told him that Lian Yu was a haven of dark magic. Magic was one of the few things that existed in his universe that posed a real threat to Kara and Oliver had no idea how the island might affect her powers.

Despite it all, the decade of tactical experience that demanded his focus to plan for every conceivable threat that might await them on Lian Yu, the only thought at the forefront his mind was saving William.

“We need to go after them,” He spoke after a long stretch of silence, turning to face the rest of the group. “Lyla, can ARGUS get us transport?”

The director nodded. “I can have a seaplane here in twenty.”

“Good. Nyssa, Malcolm, go through all the equipment here, pick out whatever you think we might need. Alex, Maggie, help them out.” With a petulant glare at Nyssa from Malcolm, the quartet moved deeper into The Bunker to start assessing the gear. “Lena, I want you here running ops. Felicity has access to the ARGUS sat system, talk to Lyla to make sure we’ve got coverage to keep the comms open.” Then, Oliver stepped to John, Rene, Dinah, and Curtis. “I need you guys to stay here.”

That caused a minor storm. Oliver had expected it. After everything Chase had put them through he had known that his team would want to be there to take him down. But Chase was likely already at Lian Yu, he had the advantage. Basic tactics, the smaller the team Oliver took to The Island, the less chance there was of them being detected. Chase knew the team too well, how they operated together, how they fought. With Kara, Maggie, and Alex, Oliver had a better chance of catching Chase off guard. On top of that, he had no idea what else Chase had planned, what he might have prepared to happen while Oliver was distracted.

“This is Adrian Chase,” He cut over the protests of his team. “I have no idea what to expect on The Island—”

“Which is exactly why you need to take us too, Hoss.” Rene cut over him.

Oliver fixed him with a firm look. “It’s why I need you all here. For all I know Chase just wants me away from Star City. I won’t take the risk that he’s got something else planned for when we’re all gone. I need to know the city is safe.” 

That seemed to placate them. It hit John first, his usual stoicism replacing the look of concern on his face.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked.

“As sure as I can be. If Malcolm is right and Chase doesn’t know about Kara this shouldn’t be much of a fight.”

It was bordering on a lie. Despite Malcolm’s insistence Oliver couldn’t help but to worry. Chase had waited six months to break out of ARGUS, it didn’t make sense. Unless, of course, he was waiting, biding his time so his team could learn everything they could about Earth-38. Unease began building in him again as his mind began to spiral into concern for Kara. He couldn’t afford the distraction. Thea, Quentin, even Felicity, they all had enough experience behind them to survive whatever Chase had in store for them, they could look after themselves. William needed him. There was no price Oliver wouldn’t pay to keep his son safe. His conditioning locked down the spiral as John answered him.

“We’ll keep the city safe while you’re gone.”

Oliver nodded. “I know you will, John. You always do.”

There was a part of him that was fearing the worst, that Chase had something planned that he wouldn’t foresee in time. If the worst did come to pass, Oliver knew there was no better man than John Diggle to carry on his crusade.

_XXX_

Against his better instincts, Oliver had allowed Malcolm to fly them out to Lian Yu. The flight was the better part of ten hours, even with the fastest plane Lyla could provide them with. Kara could have flown them there in mere minutes, even with her having to make multiple journeys to carry all the equipment, but the flight was a better way to do it. It gave them time. Time to plan, to prepare, for Oliver to give them at least an idea of what to expect from the place that had forged him into a weapon.

More than that, they needed time to adjust to each other. Lian Yu was dangerous at the best of times, but Oliver was asking three people who had never been there and two people who hated each other to work together in hostile territory without any of them knowing they _could_ work together. It was a strange feeling, knowing that Nyssa al Ghul was the only person on that plane that Oliver could trust to follow his orders without question.

Kara, Alex, and Maggie though, they were a different story. Before the return to Earth-1 he didn’t doubt them for a second. In the heat of combat back on Earth-38 they had deferred to his superior experience more than once, but in the short time they had been on his world he had given them a list of reasons not to trust him. He could see it in them, Alex and Maggie more so than Kara, but it was there in all of them. The bedrock of trust he had built with them had been shaken by the revelation of his son and his marriage to Nyssa.

After the mess with Mxyzptlk and again after abandoning Kara once she confessed her feelings, Oliver knew he had spent a lot of his goodwill with Alex. In the three months he and Kara had been dating, he had done a lot to earn her trust, to get her to believe that he would do everything in his power to protect Kara, to be someone worthy of her. Despite the two of them becoming oddly firm friends, Oliver had always been on uneasy ground with Alex when it came to Kara. Both the Kryptonian herself and Maggie had told him how fiercely protective Alex was.

He was on better standing with Maggie. Oliver had worked with her more than anyone else on Earth-38. Kara and the D.E.O. rarely needed his help dealing with alien threats. By the time those situations came to the D.E.O.’s attention they were beyond Oliver’s abilities to help out. Maggie on the other hand had asked for his input on a variety of cases she worked for the NCPD. He felt a kinship with her that he hadn’t felt since Tommy. A kinship he was all the more thankful for as they flew towards Lian Yu. There was a hint of something behind her eyes, but it wasn’t the same distrust that he was sensing from Alex.

Then there was Kara. She had taken the knowledge that he had a son without so much as blinking, had told him without remission that she understood, that she didn’t blame him for keeping the secret. Of all the things he had kept from Kara, William was the only secret that really mattered. The details of his five years in hell, the stories from his youth that he was ashamed of, he never felt like he was deliberating keeping something important from her. William was different. But, ever the optimist, understanding in the face of his lies, Kara had told him there was nothing to forgive. Nyssa’s casual introduction seemed to have fazed her more.

But there hadn’t been time to waste explaining himself. Shoulders braced, against the universe as always, Oliver had pushed through.

_“Oliver, you reading me?”_ Lena’s voice fizzled in his ear.

Quickly pressing a hand to his chest to activate the transmit switch in his suit, Oliver straightened up in his seat. “Go ahead Lena.”

_“Lyla’s given us access to an ARGUS tactical satellite, it should be in position around the same time you guys reach the island. I’ll conduct a full thermal sweep and whatever else I can think of as soon as possible, until then I can’t do much else for you.”_

“It’s more than we’d have otherwise. Keep me posted.” With that he switched off his comms.

A thermal sweep of the island would help them track down Chase and his hostages far quicker than they could on foot. In the time he had spent there, Oliver had explored a lot of the island, but going from some of the ASIS reconnaissance maps Slade had shown him, Oliver guessed he had seen less than half of Lian Yu. His experiences there with Constantine and Reiter had shown him that there were numerous hidden caverns there too, with Talia’s help Chase could have hidden anywhere. Kara’s X-Ray vision would help them speed things along, but Oliver wanted her to use her powers as little as possible to limit Chase’s ability to plan for them if he didn’t already know about her. Without her being able to fly above the island, Kara would be hard pressed to scan the whole landmass.

Oliver glanced down at the display screen in his gauntlet, the counter slowly ticked down. They still had over six hours before they would reach Lian Yu. Drawing in a breath, Oliver looked up at the rest of the cargo hold. Kara, Maggie, and Alex were all sat around in relative silence, as they all had been since take off. With Nyssa and Malcolm in the cabin, Oliver knew he needed to talk to them.

“About Nyssa…” He began, trailing off before he could fully find the words.

It was rare for Oliver Queen to find himself speechless, something about being with Kara brought out that nervous energy in him.

“Oliver you don’t have to.” Kara quickly rushed out, getting up from her perch and taking a seat next to Oliver, taking one of his hands in both of hers.

A warm smile crept over his lips at Kara’s reassurance, her bottomless optimism worming its way into him.

“Thank you, Kara,” He placed his free hand over hers. “You’ve never once questioned me every time I’ve asked for privacy, every time I’ve held something back. But I need you all to trust me.” Sucking down another breath, Oliver turned to Alex and Maggie. “The island we’re flying to right now might be the single most dangerous place on this Earth, with Adrian Chase there doubly so. I can’t risk any of you doubting me when we get there. If you hesitate when I give an order because you’re not sure you can trust me, even for a second, it could be the difference between life and death for any of us.”

The doubt that had been evident in Alex’s eyes ever since Nyssa had arrived in The Bunker shifted for a moment, the familiar respect that he had become accustomed to her showing him returned briefly before fading away again. Kara made a move to speak again but Oliver stopped her with a gentle shake of his head.

“Not long after I first came back from Lian Yu, I fought another archer…”

He told them everything they needed to know. It took him a little over an hour to fill them in. Malcolm, The League, his near death, the plan he and Malcolm had worked up to protect Starling City and the people they both cared about. There had been more than a few tense moments, at one point Oliver had been almost convinced that Alex was going to put a bullet in the back of Malcolm’s head while he was still flying the plane when he told them about Thea’s brainwashing.

The details of his marriage to Nyssa had seemed to hit Maggie the hardest. With great care, he had explained Nyssa and Sara’s relationship, that Nyssa was most assuredly only attracted to women, and that as a result Ra’s had always harboured a resentment of her. Maggie seemed appalled at the actions of Ra’s more so than Alex or Kara. Though, given what Oliver had gleaned about Maggie’s own family history, he wasn’t surprised. Alex had cracked a smile when Oliver recounted Nyssa’s attempt to assassinate him during the wedding, finding a strange solidarity in the action.

Finally, he finished recounting the events with Nyssa, Malcolm, and The League that led to where they were.

“So, why does she still call you husband?” Kara asked after a beat of silence.

“Because it embarrasses him.”

The quartet looked up to see Nyssa stood at the entryway to the cargo hold, a grin on her lips and she leant almost casually against the doorframe.

“And had I truly intended to kill you during our vows, husband, I would have done. It was my father I was truly angry with, you just happened to be within reach at the time.”

Alex and Maggie both broke out into wide grins and Kara tried to stifle a chuckle. Thinking on it, Oliver shouldn’t have been surprised that the trio liked Nyssa. She was fierce, and if his time on Earth-38 had shown him anything it was that Kara surrounded herself with strong women, Nyssa was just one more for her and her found family to bond with.

“I think we’re going to like you Nyssa.” Alex chuckled.

Nyssa paused, pointedly looking Alex up and down before answering. “The feeling is mutual, Miss Danvers.”

“She’s spoken for Nyssa.” Oliver tipped his head towards Maggie, finding an odd respite despite the tension.

“That’s never stopped me before, husband.” Nyssa threw him a wicked smirk.

_XXX_

The rest of the journey to Lian Yu began to tip tactical when Malcolm informed them they were less than an hour out. Oliver ran through the equipment they had brought one more time, and worked out logistics with Nyssa about what needed to be brought out first. The number of armaments might have been bordering on overkill, but they were up against a force approaching the size a small army.

Fully equipped in his Green Arrow gear, quiver strapped to his back and bow grasped firmly in one hand, Oliver had to assure Kara that he would be fine while she helped them unload the plane. There was one stop he knew he needed to make as soon as they touched down. Not long after they had taken off from Star City, Lyla had informed him that she had lost radio contact with the ARGUS facility on the island. It made sense for Chase to take them out, but there was a deeper concern.

The prison.

Oliver couldn’t be sure what to expect. Talia’s practiced cool of not expecting anything failed him as his mind ran through every possible scenario. There was one that stood out. With everything in him, to the higher power that Oliver didn’t have any faith in, he prayed he was right.

With a final goodbye and a quick kiss placed on Kara’s lips, he took off towards the prison.

His suspicions were confirmed almost immediately. The hatch to the underground facility was open. The first cell he reached was empty, the body of the guard limp in a pool of blood by the door. Oliver gritted his teeth and continued on.

He stopped short in front of the reinforced steel door, a tense sigh escaping him. With his free hand, Oliver pushed the door open, the light from the hallways spilling into the darkened room. An unease that he hadn’t felt for years washed over him as he stepped inside, and dropped the duffle that he had been carrying down to the ground at his feet. With a few measured paces, Oliver approached the cell in front of him, hardly able to believe what he was doing.

Stopping short, he squared his shoulders and took a deep breath.

“I need your help.”

There was hardly a pause before the response came.

“Hey kid,” The voice sent an unfamiliar shiver down Oliver’s spine. “I’m glad you came back.”

Oliver fought to lock down his emotions before he said anything, but Slade beat him to it.

“What brought you back to the island?”

Slade was on his feet, getting up from the shadowed corner of his cell and approaching the door. There was a look of curiosity on his face, the hatred Oliver had become accustomed to seeing there gone.

“Like I said,” Oliver steeled himself, drew the key from his pocket, and fitted it into the cell door. “I need your help.”

With a shakier movement than he had hoped for Oliver twisted the key in the lock. With a resounding _clang_ the cell door unlocked, and he took a step back as Slade tentatively pushed it open. Taking his first step out of the cell in what must have been near two years, Slade drew in a deep breath, pushed the door closed again, and turned back to Oliver.

“Would you like to explain what’s going on?”

Despite his best estimates, Oliver had to admit that he was a little surprised at Slade’s cool veneer. Oliver had been prepared for rage, for anger, for apathy, but not…there was something in Slade’s eyes akin to remorse.

“I’d like to talk about you for a minute. You seem…”

“What? In possession of all my marbles?” Slade managed something not dissimilar to a smile. “The Mirakuru wore off a long time ago, kid. I mean, I remember everything that happened. I’m not trying to escape that, but it feels like some bad dream.”

It was what Oliver had been banking on. The same thing that happened to Roy after the Mirakuru serum wore off. Of course, Slade had it in his system for years long than Roy had, so the residual effects were bound to last longer. It was over three years since Slade had been injected with the cure, and Oliver had hoped that it was long enough. By nothing short of a miracle, it was.

“Now, regardless of my sanity,” Slade continued. “Why do you want to help me, after everything I’ve done?”

“There is a man here on the island named Adrian Chase. He’s holding my friends and family hostage, including Thea…” Oliver trailed off for a moment, almost unsure that he could tell Slade the truth. “And my son.”

Slade almost laughed. “Since when do you have a son?”

“Slade,” Oliver cut him off. “Are you going to help me or not?”

The mercenary stopped, the smile fading from his lips. The look Oliver had seen on his features when he first walked into the room returned, the look that was almost remorse, almost guilt, two things Oliver had never once seen Slade Wilson express.

“I think I’m stating the obvious when I say I killed your mother, and for that alone you should have killed me.”

Oliver had thought about that a lot. He had dreamt about it for months after the Siege, what he could have done, if he could have saved his mother, if he should have killed Slade instead of sparing him. Despite all that had happened, Oliver did believe that killing wasn’t his first option anymore. If it was necessary, if he absolutely had to, it was a line he was willing to cross. He didn’t have to kill Slade, he defeated him, he had another option. Chase’s adamance that Oliver was nothing more than a cold blooded killer proved that he made the right choice in changing his code.

“Maybe what’s happening now is the reason I didn’t.” Oliver reached a hand back into a pouch on his suit and produced a flash drive, offering it to Slade. “This is all the intel I’ve been able to gather on your son Joe, including his current whereabouts.”

Slade took the drive, and held it up for a moment. “Are you offering to help me find my son?”

“I want us to find both of our sons.”

Oliver turned and headed back to the duffle that he had left by the door. Quickly unzipping it, he produced the familiar orange mask, the one that had haunted him for years. Pushing down his concerns one more time, he got back to his feet and returned to Slade, holding out the mask. For a long moment, Slade looked down at it, before reaching out and taking it with his free hand.

“You and me, kid. Like old times.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright now we're getting into it. So my original plan was to put the whole Lian Yu episode in this chapter, but this alone was nearly 5000 words and I'm barley 15 minutes into the episode, so I've decided to split it up.  
> As per usual, I've not fully proof read this so let me know if you catch any issues let me know and I'll come back and correct them.

There had been a palpable tension in the air as they unpacked the plane. Almost as soon as Oliver had disappeared over the rise of the beachhead Nyssa and Malcolm had descended into silent loathing, the latter barely even looking in the direction of the woman. Kara, Alex, and Maggie had all felt it, and even with Kara’s invulnerability she had not wanted to brave interfering in the affairs of two highly trained assassins. Until that day, Oliver had been the most skilled fighter Kara had ever come across, he had pulled out a few tricks so impressive that even J’onn had asked him to provide some teaching. Malcolm and Nyssa were not only fighters that had, according to Oliver’s story, beaten or matched him in combat, but fighters whose skill he respected. Kara was far from keen to find out why.

The Island set her on edge too. She had felt it almost as soon as she’d stepped off the plane and down onto the beachrock.

Logically, she knew that the events of the last day were enough to make her feel uncomfortable. The revelation of Oliver’s son, his “marriage” to Nyssa, along with the story he had told them all on the plane, would have been more than enough to make a lesser woman doubt everything she thought she knew about the man she had chosen to love. Despite the emotional part of her writhing against it, all the time Kara had spent with Oliver had rubbed off on her, she had adopted at least some of his clinical coolness when it came to surprise emotional revelations. That had been enough for her to really think about what she had learnt.

The secret around William more than made enough sense. William had been kidnapped and held as a hostage against Oliver at least once to her knowledge, not counting his being taken by Adrian Chase, and his mother had told Oliver to stay away from him. With that pain alone Kara could understand Oliver’s reluctance to tell her.

His marriage to Nyssa had been a little horrifying at first. Over the three months they had been together, Oliver had been more open with her than he had been on his first trip to Earth-38 and she had learnt about most of his past relationships, especially the ones that had led to Oliver’s fears of emotionally intimacy. A wife that he had never mentioned seemed a little too much though. It had kept her on edge until Oliver had offered up the story. Learning that he had been forced into a marriage with Nyssa in order to keep the people he cared about resonated with her in a way she hadn’t expected.

It put some of her past with Oliver into perspective too. The first full day he had been in National City Kara had offered herself up to marry Mxyzptlk when he had threatened Oliver and Mon-El, and only when Kara had reminded him pointedly of that fact did Oliver decide to go along with her plan.

Even beside all that, there was something deeper that set Kara’s teeth on edge. Oliver had told them that Lian Yu was almost Hell on Earth, that it was the worst place he had ever set foot. There was an evil there, a sense of something…wrong…that seemed to seep into everything around them. Kara could feel it in the air.

Kara was dropping the last box down onto the beachhead when she heard a voice.

“You know, if we’re going to fight side by side, you’re going to have to at least speak with me.”

She looked up to see Nyssa glaring at the back of Malcolm’s head.

Malcolm finally turned to her. “I know. It’s awful.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kara saw Maggie and Alex both looking up from the weapons they had been checking to watch the interaction between the two assassins. Feeling the tension building again, Kara took an unconscious step towards her sister.

Nyssa scoffed. “Pity.” She stalked over to Malcolm, fixing him with a glare that could kill even despite his having at least a foot on her. “By now, I thought you’d realise that by disbanding the League of Assassins, I freed us both.”

“Are you looking for applause?” Malcolm deadpanned, drawing his features into a scowl. Then, he brandished a hand, the one Oliver had told them in the plane that he had cut off in a duel. “Clapping is a little more difficult for me these days.”

Seeing a fight brewing, Kara readied herself to intervene, not wanting to chance a brawl breaking out before Oliver made it back to them. Almost as if he had sensed something happening, Oliver appeared back over the rise, a man clad in thick padded blue and orange armour, and armed to the teeth, stood by his side.

“Have you offloaded the supplies?” Oliver called out to them as he approached.

Kara stepped towards him immediately, feeling the tension that had been building in her subside a little at seeing Oliver. As she came to a stop, Kara indicated loosely at the pile of boxes to her left.

“Yeah, that’s the last of it.”

Before Oliver could answer, Maggie all but bounded up to them.

“So, what do you need the RPG for?” The detective grinned. “And can I have it?”

Oliver rolled his eyes reflexively at her, and Kara cracked a wisp of a smile despite the situation.

“Well, like I said. Chase has Talia, an army of her students, Evelyn Sharp, a metahuman, and he’s broken Harkness out of his cell. I have no interest in this being a fair fight.”

Nyssa fixed the armoured man with a similar glare to the one she had been giving Malcolm. “Is that why you released this animal from his cage.”

“Nyssa.” Oliver scolded, before turning to the rest of the group. “Kara, Alex, Maggie, this is Slade Wilson.”

Alex stepped out beside Maggie in an instant. “Wait. _The_ Slade Wilson.”

Oliver gritted his teeth. Alex was the only one he had recounted the whole Slade Wilson scenario to. He had hinted it to Kara, little fragments of the training and torment Slade had put him through that he had told whenever it was necessary to help her understand him. But Alex had heard it all, and he had been getting progressively more inebriated as he’d told the story, emotions had been high even despite that. The look of pure dread and hatred in Alex’s eyes was more than understandable.

“Stand down,” Oliver held up a hand in a placatory gesture. “Slade’s…different.”

Alex didn’t retreat from her stance, and Oliver could see her hand hanging loosely at her side almost twitching to be filled with the butt of her handgun. Before he could make another move to try and defuse the situation, Kara shouted out to him.

“Oliver, we’ve got incoming!”

Even with his honed senses, Oliver couldn’t hear anything heading their way, but he didn’t doubt Kara for a second. He could see the confused looks in Malcolm and Nyssa’s faces and even Slade turned on his heel trying to figure out what she had seen. Trusting the training they had done together, Oliver deferred to Kara.

“Call it!” He answered, gripping his bow tighter in readiness.

“Three o’clock, six high. Tinsel.” Kara made the call. Without hesitation, Oliver gripped an arrow and pre-aimed. _“ **Now!** ”_

He let the arrow fly.

The arrow was a high explosive yield, supplemented with external flares that fired out in all directions before the main payload detonated. It was something Winn had cooked up for him, designed to take out an explosive as big as an anti-tank warhead. The larger rocket propelled variants were too fast for Oliver to track with perfect accuracy, even with his honed reflexes, so he and Kara had spent hours training together to get the calls down perfectly. Most occasions, Kara would be able to take out any kind of explosive device with her heat vision before it was close enough to be a threat, but Oliver had wanted a backup, just in case. The explosion and flares produced an odd red, gold, and sliver firework, so Winn had affectionately named the device a ‘Tinsel shot’. 

Kara had timed it perfectly.

The arrowhead detonated exactly three seconds after leaving the bow string. The rocket exploded on contact, the heatwave from the huge explosion providing an almost comfortable respite from the freezing cold of the North China Sea. Oliver scanned the periphery of the forest as the explosion disseminated, saw nothing and confirmed it with a glance to Kara, who nodded the all clear.

“How did—” Nyssa began, but Oliver cut her off.

“Alex. Blue crate, stamped Kilo-Four-Four, where is it?” He barked the question out. Hand going back to draw another Tinsel arrow, the reflex of being under attack overriding him.

Alex quickly grabbed the box and put it on top of the nearest pile of crates.

“Slade, it’s a military APS, get it set up.”

Practiced in the art of operating while under fire, Slade immediately followed the instruction. It took him less than a minute to get the device set up, the whole while Oliver and Kara scanned the horizon, ready to take down anything else that might have been thrown at them. After what felt like an excruciatingly long time, Slade got to his feet and called out that he was finished.

The immediate threat over, Oliver returned the arrow to his quiver and relaxed his bow arm. Turning on his heel, Oliver walked over to Kara and offered her a smile.

“Great call.”

“Great shooting.” She shot back with a smile of her own.

“So, she’s a meta-human.” Slade’s raspy voice snapped to Oliver’s attention. “Enhanced senses and reflexes? Something like that?” He hazarded.

Oliver glanced at Kara in the corner of his vision, and saw the tight look on her features. The first thing Oliver had said to her on the plane was that she wasn’t to use her powers openly unless it was absolutely necessary. Malcolm at least knew she was an alien, and Oliver didn’t want to push him for information in case he didn’t know the full extent of her powers. He didn’t want to give away any more information than they needed to. Once they were on Lian Yu, where Chase would almost certainly be watching them at all times, Kara couldn’t use her powers without giving Chase the advantage.

“Something like that.” Oliver offered.

Slade seemed to read the reluctance on his features, and didn’t push the issue any further.

Oliver let out a small sigh of relief.

_XXX_

“The RPG they shot at us came from over there,” Oliver indicated to the left of the group as they moved into the forest. “And the video message from William came from just west of here.” Oliver came to a stop and pressed a hand to his chest. “Lena, any update from the thermal sweep?”

“ _Not yet,_ ” Came the sightly distorted response. “ _There’s a storm building around the island, it’s interfering with the thermal imaging. I’m trying to pull a nearby weather satellite to get a clearer read, but it’s going to take a few minutes_.” 

“Chase could have the hostages in either location.” Alex supplied.

Slade got there before Oliver. “Or neither. This is a large island.”

It had been Oliver’s main concern. Lian Yu, and the larger island chain, comprised more ground than any of them could feasibly cover in a reasonable amount of time. The thermal sweep of the island had been his best idea to find Chase and give them an advantage, but without that information their best bet was Kara. That all Chase had sent their way on the beachhead was an RPG made Oliver think he didn’t know about Kara, but there was still a concern in the back of his mind. The whole time Prometheus had terrorised Star City he had been at least one step ahead. The only time Oliver had gained the upper hand by using Chase’s wife against him, Chase had immediately turned around and killed her. Doubt wasn’t something Oliver found himself accustomed to feeling, but Chase’s organised psychopathy and his concern for Kara brought it out.

“I’ll check the RPG site.” Malcolm offered.

Nyssa didn’t miss a beat. “I’ll accompany you.”

There was an almost imperceptible twitch under Malcolm’s left eye before he replied. “Oh, it’s almost like you don’t trust me, Nyssa.”

“No. It’s exactly like I don’t trust you.”

Oliver bit down a sigh. The odds were stacked against them even with Kara’s assistance, and Nyssa and Malcolm’s bickering was doing little to improve his mood.

“Check it out. Stay on comms,” Oliver pointedly said at the two. “Kara, go with them. Make sure they don’t kill each other.”

Alex was quick to fall in step with her sister. “I’m going too.”

He knew full well that Kara would be able to keep an eye on Malcolm and Nyssa on her own, but Oliver understood Alex’s desire to stay with her sister. With the looming threat of Chase and his own insecurity with the idea that he didn’t know about Kara’s powers and weaknesses, Oliver wasn’t keen to let her out of his sight. Alex was more fiercely protective of Kara than Oliver was himself, he knew she’d be safe.

That left Oliver with Slade and Maggie. Slade was the most unknown Oliver was putting himself up alongside. Even though his one time friend seemed to be back to the person Oliver had trusted when he had first gotten to Lian Yu, the person who trained him and became a true brother, Oliver wasn’t quite able to trust it. There was a part of him that insisted that Slade might just have been playing a long game.

The small concern he’d had that Chase would have recruited Slade was wiped away the moment he found Harkness’s cell empty and the guard murdered. It didn’t make sense to take Harkness and leave Slade behind without so much as having offered Slade an opportunity to join them unless Chase had never intended to recruit Slade. The confusion Slade had shown when Oliver had first arrived in his cell seemed genuine enough. Oliver prided himself on his ability to read people and he had spent enough time around Slade to have learnt his tells.

Which meant that Chase had, most likely, entirely ignored Slade.

That fact alone gave Oliver a little more ground to trust Slade. Every step of the way Chase had the advantage. Chase knew things that Oliver himself hadn’t known, made predictions about the people around him that Oliver hadn’t been able to. If Chase didn’t want to recruit Slade, it likely meant Oliver could use him, if not trust him.

Slade broke out ahead of him and Maggie as the trio made their way through the forest. Slade always had been the better tacker, so Oliver had no issue letting him go ahead. Almost as soon as he was out of ear shot Maggie turned to him.

“So, what’s the story with you and him?”

Oliver threw her a look out of the corner of his eye, trying to get her to drop the subject, but Maggie pressed him.

“Alex tensed up as soon as she heard his name, she clearly knows something. And I hate her knowing more than me.”

A chuckle forced itself out at that. Maggie had the tendency to break through his steel with her tackles nature.

“When I first ended up here on the island Slade was one of the people who trained me,” He began. “To save his life we had to inject him with a super soldier serum, but it damaged his mind. I made a decision that lead to the woman he loved getting killed. After he found out Slade swore he’d kill me, but only after he destroyed my life. So, I had to kill him.”

Maggie drew back in surprise for a moment, looked across at Slade, then back to Oliver with a raised eyebrow.

“It didn’t take.”

“No shit.” Maggie scoffed. “What happened?”

“A few years ago Slade came back to Star City. He lead a siege with an army of super soldiers like him. He…killed my mother.”

Habits were a strange thing. When Alex had seen Slade Oliver had watched her almost reflectively go for her weapon, fingers splayed and twitching to grab the handgun. In that moment, Oliver saw the exact same reaction in Maggie. It was an almost identical movement, down to the way her fingers twitched.

“I cured him, and locked him up here,” He continued before Maggie could do anything rash. “The effects have worn off, Slade seems…normal again.”

He was still hesitant to say it, doubts tugged in the back of his head.

“Kid,” Slade called from ahead of them. Oliver gave Maggie a quick glance, and she gave a nod of acknowledgement. The two quickly jogged to join him. “I see movement up ahead.”

Oliver peered through the trees to see what Slade was pointing out. There were cages in a clearing, suspiciously unguarded. From the distance they were at, Oliver couldn’t quite make out the figures inside them, just blurs of colour through the tree line.

“Stay sharp.”

With that, Oliver broke cover and made his way towards the cages. As soon as he cleared the tree line he could make the figures out. Trapped in the cages were Thea, Quentin, and Samantha. Quentin jolted upright the moment he saw them approaching.

“Oliver, thank God.”

Slade jumped in immediately. “Keep your voices down.”

In the furthest cage, Thea got to her knees and glared. “What the hell is he doing here?”

Undoubtedly irritating her more, Oliver ignored his sister and moved to the centre cage, quickly approaching Samantha.

“Where’s William?”

“I don’t know. We were separated.” Samantha grabbed at the bars of her cage and leant forward. “Oliver, what’s going on?”

Slade chose that moment to voice Oliver’s fears. “Why are they unguarded?”

It had hit him the moment Oliver had seen the cages. It didn’t make sense to leave prisoners unattended. Chase had Talia’s students on side, at Oliver’s count that was at least a few dozen, and that was only what he had seen at the monastery he visited. Knowing Talia there was more he hadn’t seen. That meant Chase had the numbers to guard them.

He chose not to.

Ambush.

It hit Oliver a second too late.

He swivelled on his heel in time to see three figures dropping from the tree cover above them. He placed them all immediately. Talia al Ghul, Evelyn Sharp, and Digger Harkness. Instinct kicked in, but Oliver wasn’t quick enough. His finger had barely begun to grab the flights of an arrow when Talia had her own shot aimed at Samantha just over his shoulder. Almost on auto pilot Oliver’s eyes scanned over the three opponents across from him, his mind racking through all the different options he had, mapping each step and movement he would have to make to disarm them.

“Don’t even think about it, Oliver,” Talia snapped his trail of thought. “Or you son loses his mother.”

Oliver opened his palm, released the arrow and slowly brought his hand back down to his side. Teeth gritted in defiance, he looked across at Maggie and Slade, both with guns aimed at them.

“Adrian said it would be pointless to reach out to you.” Evelyn turned her attention to Slade, a smirk pulling at one corner of her mouth.

That confirmed Oliver’s suspicions about Chase.

“Although given this turn of events, perhaps you’ve changed your mind?” Talia suggested, looking at Slade out of the corner of her eye, her aim not wavering for a second.

Harkness picked up on it. “What’s it gonna be, Slade. Care to join the winning side?”

Despite his training telling him better, Oliver couldn’t help the cold shiver of concern that went through him as he looked to Slade. He could have left Slade in his cell, Oliver knew that. With Kara there he didn’t really need him, but part of him had _wanted_ to trust Slade. They had been brothers in arms for two years before the Mirakuru, Oliver had trusted Slade with his life. With all the optimism that Kara had bled into him over the time he had spent with her, Oliver had wanted to give Slade a chance.

“Put a gun to his head!” Slade commanded, and Oliver felt his heart land soggily in his guts. “Sorry kid, but there’s no giving up to these guys.”

There was something in it that made Oliver pause. He recognised those words. Flashes of his time training with Slade flickered through his mind. It clicked immediately as Evelyn stalked towards him. It had been the first trick Slade had taught him. It was almost a struggle for him not to smile as Oliver crouched down and put his bow on the ground. Talia grinned and lowered her bow as Evelyn came to a stop right in front of him.

The muzzle of her handgun was inches from his forehead. Rookie mistake.

“I assumed you’d want to be on the winning side.” Harkness said smugly as he lowered his weapon.

Slade stepped toward him. “Assumption is the mother of all failures!”

With a vicious right hook Slade levelled Harkness. Evelyn turned her head for a second to look at the commotion and Oliver struck. Over eight years later and Slade’s training stayed with him. With one hand Oliver knocked the gun from Evelyn’s hand, hooked his arm into the crook of her elbow and wrenched her over with his own arm locked against his hip, throwing her to the floor.

In the time it took him to drop Evelyn, Talia had brought her bow back up to a killing angle. Oliver reacted quickly, gripping a flechette and throwing it forward at the same time Talia released her shot. The two projectiles collided in mid-air and span wildly to the ground. On the periphery of his vision, Oliver saw Slade throw Harkness back, and the assassin scrambled to his feet as Oliver grabbed his bow.

For a few long moments, he and Talia held a standoff, each of them ready to reach back and draw an arrow at the first sign of movement from their opposite.

_“Sister!”_

Over Talia’s shoulder Oliver saw Nyssa, Malcolm, Kara, and Alex all break from the tree line into the clearing. He could see the look of concern written all across Kara’s features. Oliver knew her well enough, he could see the coiled tension in Kara, she was ready to strike at a milliseconds notice.

The moment Talia lifted her hand Kara started to move, still locked eyes with Oliver across the clearing. Oliver quickly jerked his head in the negative and Kara froze, eyes wide in disbelief. Talia dropped her hand and a cloud of smoke erupted in font of him. Oliver could see Kara track the movements of Talia and Harkness with X-Ray vision as they fled, irritation radiating from her. A few moments later the smoke had blown away in the wind, but Talia and Harkness were gone.

Oliver caught Slade’s gaze and gestured to Evelyn. Slade nodded and started towards her as Kara reached Oliver.

“What was that?” She hissed, lowly. “I could have taken them.”

“I know,” Oliver answered, keeping his voiced hushed. “But I don’t want to risk Chase finding out about you. If he had them bugged and found out about your powers he could have cut and run, and we still don’t know where William is.”

Kara paused at that. The understanding took her quickly and she nodded. “Okay, how are you going to tell me if you need to me to use my powers.”

Oliver lightly tapped at the small computer built into his wrist. “Alex and I are both wearing signal watches.”

“Got it.” Kara offered him a gentle smile. “How are you holding up?”

That was a loaded question.

“I’m compartmentalising,” He offered. “It’s not going very well.”

Kara’s smile grew a little, and she took his hand with one of her own. Oliver could feel her inhuman warmth all the more in the bitter cold of Lian Yu.

“There’s the emotionally repressed idiot I fell in love with.”

Oliver mirrored her smile despite himself, and quickly leant down to press a kiss against the top of her head.

By the time Oliver turned back to the rest of their group, Slade and Nyssa had unlocked the cells to free the hostages and trapped Evelyn in one of them. Quentin was flexing his stiff joints, clearly glad to be free of the cage.

“Where’s Felicity?” Oliver asked.

“Not sure, Chase split us up when we arrived.” Thea answered, then turned to Kara. “Good to see you, Blue.” She beamed, pulling Kara into a quick hug. 

Quentin glared across at Slade. “So, you want to tell us about that?”

Oliver grimaced. “Later.” With that, he turned to Evelyn. “Where are they?”

“I wish I knew,” The girl in the cage glared at him. “So I could tell you to go screw yourselves.”

“Why did Chase split up the hostages?” Malcolm asked from behind him.

Evelyn grinned. “Why does Chase do anything? So far, he hasn’t laid out a single hoop you could keep yourself from jumping through. Maybe leaving me here was part of the plan.”

Knowing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Evelyn, Oliver walked back to the group. It had been almost half an hour since Lena had told him she was trying to bring in another satellite to scan the island, with any luck she would have managed to. Running the scenarios in the back of his mind, Oliver scanned his eyes across the group in front of him.

“Malcolm, I need you to take Thea, Quentin, and Samantha back to the plane and fly to the mainland, then come back for us.”

Thea stepped forward immediately. “We’re not leaving you here.” 

“I need you to. I need to focus, and I can’t do that worrying about all of you.” He shot back.

That answer did nothing to placate Thea, the younger woman grabbed his arm and pulled Oliver aside, out of earshot of the rest of the group. “Okay, what the hell are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Slade Wilson and Malcolm Merlyn.”

“Thea—” Oliver tried but she cut him off.

“No. We are orphans because of those two.”

Oliver gritted his teeth. He had been expecting resistance from Thea. It was one of the reasons he wanted to send her away. Even knowing his history with Slade and Malcolm, Alex, Kara, and Maggie were detached enough from it not to question him when he told them to work together. Thea on the other hand had suffered too much, and held a grudge far deeper than Oliver did.

“You know what I’m up against here.”

“You’ve got Kara, Alex, Maggie. Why do you need those two? Why are you sending Quentin and I away?”

“Because I need the two of you to keep Samantha safe. We need to get her off the island. And I don’t want to have to put Quentin up against Black Siren.”

That was another concern he had. Almost all of them had been fooled by Black Siren, but it had hit Quentin the hardest. Oliver could tell that Quentin still blamed himself for Laurel’s death. Even if it was an insane notion, Oliver understood the compulsion to take blame better than anyone.

“Nothing about this situation is ideal, Thea,” Oliver continued. “But Kara, Slade, they’re all unknowns to Chase, it might be enough to put him off balance. I need your help, Speedy, and this is how you help me.”

It sank into her. Oliver watched the resistance leave Thea as she sighed.

“Okay.”

With that, the two quickly re-joined the rest of the group. As they did, Nyssa approached from the opposite side.

“My sister and Harkness fled into the forest, but I can track them.”

“They might lead us to the rest of the hostages.” Slade offered.

Oliver was inclined to agree with him, but it was a long shot. Talia was as well trained as Nyssa, and since leaving Ra’s there was every chance she had learnt tricks Nyssa might not have known. Nyssa was still the best shot he had.

“Get them to the plane,” Oliver ordered Malcolm before turning to Kara. “Go with them to the plane, then find us. I’m trusting you to keep them safe.”

Kara eyed him for a second. “You sure?”

“As sure as I can be.” Oliver offered.

Kara quickly sprang across to Oliver, gripped the front of his suit with one hand and pulled him down into a kiss. He hadn’t been expecting it, and for a brief moment Oliver was stunned into stillness before returning the kiss. A moment later they broke apart, and Kara offered him a sheepish smile.

“For luck.” She smiled. “I love you.”

Oliver returned the smile. “I love you too. Now go.”

As the group splintered away and headed back into the forest, Oliver watched, reluctant to take his eyes from Kara. He caught the conspiratorial grin Maggie was giving him in the corner of his vision and snapped back to attention.

“Lena,” He called, pressing a hand to turn on his comms. “Give me an update.”

_“I’ve finished the thermal sweep of the island. Other than you I’ve got a few dozens signatures at what looks like a monastery south east of your location.”_

They had found Chase.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well damn this one took me a while to get write. I originally finished the chapter on Thursday, but after reading it through I decided I didn't like the direction I'd gone in, so I went back and rewrite about the last 3000 words of this one. That also changed some of my plans for the next few chapters of this story, so I've got to make some broader changes to the plot of this universe now to account for it. 
> 
> As per usual, this isn't properly proof-read, just a cursory glance to make sure the general stuff is there. If you catch any mistakes just lemme know.

Nyssa had decided to break out ahead of the group to check the path for any traps laid behind by Chase or Talia. Even with Lena providing overwatch via the ARGUS satellite the assassin didn’t trust the ever deadly terrain of Lian Yu. Oliver and Slade had agreed it was worth it, they knew better than anyone else alive how dangerous Lian Yu was. With the landmines left behind by the Chinese, roaming wolf packs, and all manner of traps that both Oliver and Slade had armed over the years, there was no way Lena could pick most of them up with the satellite feed. It would have been better for either Slade or himself to be checking the path ahead as they moved but Oliver had no intentions of letting Slade out of his sight.

The ambush had done a lot to prove to Oliver that he _could_ trust Slade. The feint that Slade had pulled had been damn near perfect, and it wouldn’t have worked with anyone else. The history that Oliver shared with him was deeper than with most other people. There was a bond forged in fires like Lian Yu, a sense of mutual understanding that comes with living on high alert for years, Slade might have understood Oliver better than most people. Kara was the only exception to that, and then only because Oliver had chosen to let her in.

Chosen might not have been exactly right, he supposed. Kara really hadn’t given him much of a choice in the end.

There was something in knowing that he might have been able to trust Slade again that gave Oliver a strange boost to his confidence. Despite the ever looming presence of Adrian Chase, the threat he posed to everything that Oliver cared about, Slade was a victory.

“So, instead of marrying the blonde, you marry Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter?” Oliver’s attention snapped to his left. Slade was at his side, mask removed and held in one hand. “And now you’re dating the cheerleader?”

“Nyssa talks to much.” Oliver sighed.

Slade eyed him curiously for a moment. “She hasn’t explained your beef with Chase.”

How did Oliver put that into words? For months Adrian Chase had terrorised both him and his city. Killed dozens of people, hurt and threatened countless more. All in a plot to avenge his father, a man that Oliver had killed in cold blood without a moment of thought. He hadn’t even properly explained it to Kara, to Alex or Maggie. All they knew was that Chase had taken hostages, taken the people Oliver cared about. They hadn’t needed any more than that from him. They trusted him enough not to question him.

But Chase was a monster of his own making.

Maybe that wasn’t entirely true. John had tried to convince him of that, and to a degree he was right. To have become as unhinged as he was, Chase carried deeper damage. The death of his father had just given him something, a purpose, an outlet to focus all of his hate onto. He had been a loaded gun even before The Hood murdered Justin Claybourne. Oliver had just given him a target, and in doing so put everything he cared about downrange.

Oliver looked up for a moment, Alex and Maggie were just a few paces behind him and Slade. He couldn’t explain it all, not with William on the line. He needed to focus.

“My past is coming back to haunt me.”

Slade didn’t hesitate. “Seems to be a recurring theme with you, kid.”

“Don’t know why.” Oliver picked a point in the distance to focus on as he answered.

They came to a stop, Slade stepping around in front of Oliver.

“Well it’s really not that complicated,” Slade began, and immediately Oliver as conscious of what he might say, especially with Maggie and Alex stood behind them. “You suffer from survivor’s guilt. You can’t get over the death of your father.”

The moment those words landed in his ears, Oliver’s defences went up. His father was one of the branches of his own history that he hadn’t discussed with Kara, there had never seemed to be an opportunity to explain it without it being a jarring conversation. His new circle on Earth-38 knew about the death of his father, that he had been on _The Gambit_ when it went down, but the lifeboat, his suicide, it had all gone unmentioned.

There had never been time.

Deep down, there was a part of him that knew that was a lie. That same part of him knew that he was _afraid_. That after everything, all the turmoil he and Kara had been through, that if she really saw the truth of who he was she would he horrified. He held so much back from her. William, his father, Chase, so much of his life that he was ashamed of. So much of his life that made him unworthy of a woman as pure of heart as Kara.

“Adrian Chase has _nothing_ to do with my father.” Oliver answered after a long moment of silence.

Slade stepped closer. “Kid, when it comes to you, everything has to do with your father. You and I are not dissimilar. We’re both haunted by our past, and the only way to bury that ghost is by forgiving yourself.”

“Forgiving myself? For what?” Oliver asked, feeling a rise of irritation at Slade’s insinuation.

“You blame yourself for your father’s suicide,” Slade answered, voice a little softer than it had been. “And everything else that has gone wrong since. You need to forgive yourself for your sins.”

There had been a distinct noise of surprise from somewhere out of his vision at that, Oliver had been expecting it, whether it came from Alex or Maggie he couldn’t be sure. On top of that, Oliver had almost no doubt in his mind that across the island Kara was using her powers to keep tabs on him, that she would have heard it too. 

There was something in Slade’s words, a truth Oliver had been reluctant to admit even to himself. Chase was proof enough that Slade was right. Their battle had been fought on the legacies of their fathers. The Hood had killed Justin Claybourne because he was a criminal, a corrupt businessman and domestic terrorist. In turn, Chase has proved that Robert Queen had been a murderer, that he had killed a man with his own hands and covered it up. It had nearly destroyed him and Thea, finding out yet another painful barb about their own family.

“You say that like it’s easy.”

There was anger leaching into his voice that Oliver knew wasn’t aimed at Slade. Coiling inside him was the familiar snake of his self-loathing. John had called him out on it a hundred times, as had Thea, even Tommy once or twice. Kara had done too in her gentler way, slowly massaging at his walls until she made her way beyond them, trying to get him to let her help. That was something Kara had done from the beginning. She had never asked Oliver to let her in, never once pushed him to share when he didn’t want to, but even still she had a way of making him open up that he couldn’t describe.

Despite it all, Oliver could still feel the familiar burn inside him.

Slade offered him a sympathetic smile. “It’s the hardest thing in this world.”

_XXX_

“You know, I travelled halfway across the world to rescue you. I thought it would at least entitle me to a conversation.”

Kara had been lingering at the back of the group as they had made their way across Lian Yu, head on a swivel and scanning the environment for anything that might have posed a threat to them. Oliver had been right to call Lian Yu the most dangerous place he had ever been – at least it was for a human. The amount of landmines buried beneath the surface was almost frightening, and while there were none that posed an immediate threat to their group she had spotted a dozen or so traps that looked to be the makeshift devices Oliver had mentioned building. With Thea and Malcolm’s prior knowledge of the terrain plus Kara’s X-Ray vision they had managed to stay out of any danger.

The one threat she couldn’t account for, was the people.

“Yeah? Well it doesn’t.” Thea replied through gritted teeth.

Oliver had explained Malcolm and Thea’s history while they had been on the plane, and Kara couldn’t find it in her to intervene in Thea’s loathing of her father. With any other situation, Kara knew full well that she would have been inclined to get involved, to try and help a father and daughter patch up whatever problems they had in their relationship. It was just who she was. Even without Supergirl, Kara couldn’t turn away from someone in need.

Malcolm and Thea though? She wasn’t sure she wanted to do anything.

Even if it had been brief, Oliver had explained Thea’s true parentage, the affair that Moira Queen had with Malcolm Merlyn, and that Robert Queen had known the whole time and raised Thea as his own anyway. That alone would have been enough to make most people uncomfortable. But Malcolm had then taught Thea how to fight, everything she needed to later fight alongside Oliver, he had gained Thea’s trust the way only a father could. Then he had betrayed that trust and drugged her, manipulated her into killing a friend in cold blood. Thea hadn’t forgiven him once she found out. Malcolm selling her nephew out to Damian Darhk had just been one more to add to the list.

Despite her ever optimistic outlook, Kara wasn’t sure even she could have forgiven that level of betrayal.

“Did it ever occur to you that I’m here because I’m your father?” Malcolm shot back.

“No, you’re not,” Thea scoffed. “We are nothing to each other. Don’t you ever understand that?”

A sharp metallic _click_ stopped Thea in her tracks. Kara figured it out instantly and she was already moving. The whole time she had been at the back of the group, out of immediate sight of the others, she had levitated just a few centimetres from the floor, enough to avoid having to work her way over the terrain, and to avoid exactly what Thea had just done.

She had stood on a landmine.

Kara cursed herself for letting it happen. She had gotten distracted, wrapped up in her own thoughts about the situation between Malcolm and Thea, so much so that she had stopped scanning the environment.

Malcolm froze beside Thea, the two of them sharing a look of dread that Kara was almost certain she was wearing as well. The sudden halt in motion caused Quentin and Samantha to turn back to them, concern written over the older man’s face.

“Thea? You okay?”

Malcolm answered for her. “No, no she’s not. She just activated a landmine.”

The air was almost instantly thick with worry. On either side of Thea, Malcolm and Kara crouched down to look at the metal plate her foot was pressed firmly down on. With the tip of one prosthetic finger Malcolm moved away some of the dirt around the pressure pad of the landmine, inspecting it carefully.

“The trigger is rusted over.”

“That’s—that’s good, right? That’s—that’s a good sign?” Thea’s voice shook as she spoke, even without tuning into it Kara could hear her heart pounding in her chest.

“No, it means I can’t disarm it.” Malcolm answered.

On her side, Kara began to move away more of the dirt, trying to expose as much of the top of the mine as she could without disturbing the device. In the long seconds Malcolm had been inspecting the mine, she had come up with an idea. If she could get the mine exposed without setting it off, she could freeze it, and hopefully give them enough time to get away. Her first instinct had been to superspeed Thea to safety, but there was no guarantee she could pull it off, and Oliver had warned her against using her powers openly. At least freezing the mine had the benefit of subtlety.

“Any ideas, Blue?” Thea asked, trying to keep her voice level.

Kara got to her feet and reassuringly squeezed Thea’s hand.

“Yeah, I’ve got something,” She smiled at her, before turning to the rest of the group with a more serious expression. “I’m going to need you guys to get clear first.” 

“You sure it’ll work?” Quentin asked, a little hesitant to leave Thea.

Kara did her best to look sure. “Yeah, I am.”

A sudden yelp behind her caused Kara to wheel around, almost instinctively lifting into the air an inch to do so at superspeed. She turned around in time to see Thea stumbling sideways away from the mine. Quickly Kara moved forward to support her, grabbing Thea’s arm, and keeping her upright. Once her feet were planted solidly on the ground again, Kara turned back to Malcolm.

“What the hell are you doing!” Thea burst out at her father.

Malcolm managed a small chuckle, but it was glaringly obvious how forced it was. “Well with all due respect, Miss Danvers, I’m hardly willing to risk my daughter’s life on the chance you know how to disarm a mine with more skill than me.”

Thea shook her head, and Kara could see tears pulling at the corners of her eyes. “No. Okay if you think that you need to prove something to me, you don’t, okay? You proved it!”

“I’m not trying to prove anything,” Malcolm said, his voice level in spite of the danger. “From the moment you were born, all I ever wanted was to protect you.”

“You don’t have to,” Thea almost begged. “I didn’t ask for you to!”

“A child doesn’t have to ask.” Malcolm’s voice dropped a level, and Kara could read the emotion he was holding back.

Even with everything Malcolm had done it was clear he still loved his daughter. Kara wasn’t entirely sure how to balance the man who was willing to die for his daughter with the man who had intentionally put her in the crosshairs of a group of assassins to manipulate Oliver into fighting for him. The sudden realisation hit that that, even with the three months they had been dating, she and Oliver spent almost all their time on Earth-38. Occasionally Kara would meet Oliver at City Hall if he was late working and Supergirl wasn’t needed, but even then, most nights they still went back to her place. There was so much in Oliver’s world that was far from straightforward.

Unbidden, a memory of her conversations with Astra flashed across Kara’s mind. Her first year as Supergirl. Her aunt’s love for her had been evident even with them actively working against each other.

Thea turned to Kara then, eyes pleading. “Tell me you can get him out.”

Kara steeled herself quickly. “I think so, but you guys need to go. Keep heading in this direction, we’ll catch up as soon as we can.”

With one last long look at Malcolm, Thea took off, Quentin and Samantha close behind her. The moment they were out of sight, Kara turned back to him. Sounds moving up on them suddenly pulled at her senses. Squinting into the forest over Malcolm’s shoulder, Kara saw Digger Harkness and a group of assassins running up to them.

“We’ve got company, going to have to do this quick.” Kara turned her attention back to Malcolm.

He almost smiled. “I understand that’s not a problem for you.”

Kara ran her tongue across the back of her teeth, pausing despite the pressing danger.

“You know, if I didn’t truly believe you actually love Thea, I’d be tempted to leave you here,” She began. “Offering up your life for her is noble, but it’s an easy out, it doesn’t make up for not actually being her father.”

She left a few seconds for those words to sink in. Then reached out and grabbed Malcolm.

_XXX_

The rest of the way to the monastery, Oliver had felt the unspoken words Alex and Maggie had been holding in. The revelation of his father’s suicide had clearly been something they wanted to broach with him, but they could not take the time for it. Even if they knew where Chase was, they didn’t know anything about his plan, what he might have been doing to Felicity or William. Slade had taken up enough time with his insights into Oliver’s emotional issues and they could not afford to get side-tracked again.

The monastery had looked truly abandoned from a distance, but a call to Lena had confirmed that there were around three dozen heat signatures registering inside, and nothing else showing on the island. Inside, the only sign that anyone had been there were the lit lamps that dotted the hallways. Beyond that, there was nothing, not even the faintest noise that indicated anyone aside from the three of them was there.

“Do either of you know anything about this place that could give us a tactical advantage?” Nyssa broke the silence.

“I’ve only seen it one time and that was from a distance.” Oliver answered.

“Well, maybe we should split up.” Slade suggested.

There was a long beat of silence before Nyssa spoke again. “Should we?”

She did not trust Slade, that much had been clear the moment she had seen him on the beachhead. Oliver didn’t need her to trust him, he had no intention of leaving Nyssa alone with him. Without turning to face the others, Oliver answered.

“Nyssa go with Alex and Maggie, we’ll be fine.”

Before anyone moved there was another silence and even with his back to them Oliver could sense the unspoken conversation that went on between Alex and Maggie. Then, seemingly registering the lack of room for debate in his tone, the trio moved ahead of him and broke off down a different corridor. When they were out of sight, Slade stepped up to him.

“They don’t trust me.”

Oliver finally turned to him. “Knowing what they know, can you blame them?”

“No,” Slade admitted. “I’m not even sure I trust myself.”

_XXX_

The instant Kara had dropped out of superspeed and released her grip on Malcolm, Thea had thrown herself at him, grappling him in a bear hug.

“What the hell was that?” She practically sobbed into his chest. “Why did you do that?”

Malcolm had returned the embrace with just as much vigour. “You’re my daughter, Thea. There’s nothing I won’t do for you.”

As much as Kara appreciated seeing the opportunity for Thea and Malcolm to try and repair their relationship, she had quickly ushered the group back into moving towards the plane. After the near miss with the mine, Kara insisted on leading the group to keep an eye out for threats, and to ensure that she would be the one to trigger them if they were unavoidable. It didn’t take long for Thea to end up by her side.

“Thank you, for saving him.” Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet, strikingly different from the brash young woman Kara had gotten to know.

For a brief moment, Kara came to a stop, gave Thea a quick one-armed hug and then carried on walking.

“Do you need to talk?” She prompted gently.

Thea sighed. “Honestly—I don’t even know how I feel right now. Twenty-four hours ago, I—I couldn’t even think of Malcolm without wanting to scream, and now—now I don’t know. I mean he was ready to give up his life for me.”

Kara offered Thea a sympathetic smile. “He’s your father.”

“He manipulated me, he lied to me, he…he got me to kill my friend’s sister. I—how can I be happy he’s alive when I’ve hated him so much?”

There as no easy answer to that. Her own experiences with Astra had taught Kara that much. They had fought against each other for months and Astra had asked Kara to join her over and over, it was the love her aunt still felt that spared Kara’s life on more than one occasion.

“From what Oliver has told me, Malcolm hasn’t always been a good person, and yeah it sounds like he’s been a terrible father. But I think he just proved that he does love you, in his own way. And maybe that was a look at the father he could be, if you give him the chance.”

Thea fell into silence after that, clearing weighing up Kara’s words. It didn’t take much longer for them to break out of the dense forest and back out onto the rocky beachhead. By a small mercy, the plane was still there, along with the crates of equipment all over the rocks. The moment the group made it there, Samantha stopped still a few meters short.

Kara knew what she was going to say before she said it.

“I’m not coming.”

Thea turned on her heel and started towards her. “Samantha you can’t stay here.”

“I can’t abandon William.”

It was the conviction only a parent could muster.

“You’re not abandoning him, Oliver’s out there looking for him right now, you know he’ll keep William safe.” Thea insisted.

“He’s my son.” Samantha’s voice cracked, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Samantha,” Kara began tentatively, taking a step towards her. “You know what Oliver said earlier. This island is dangerous, and you have no idea where William might be. He’s been in danger, he’s probably scared to death right now. But _when_ he’s safe, _when_ Oliver finds him, he’s going to need his mom. The best thing you can do for him is keep yourself safe until then.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Samantha held her ground.

Desperate to find a solution, Kara turned to Malcolm. “Could you maybe stay here? Keep Samantha safe on the plane?”

Malcolm shook his head. “If Chase knows we’re here, I can’t guarantee that Thea and I will be enough to hold off whatever he’ll send our way.” He paused for a moment, then stepped forward. “Miss Clayton, I understand the desire to protect your child better than anyone else here, I think I proved that today. Which is why I apologise for what I’m about to do.”

Before Kara could even question what that could mean, Malcolm’s right arm had shot up, fingers splayed. Kara followed the point of his hand and found herself looking at Samantha again. Lodged perfectly in a vein on the side of her neck, was a small black dart. As if in shock, Samantha reached up, fingers trying to find the site of the sudden pain she must have felt. It only lasted a few seconds, then she began to sway on her feet.

Kara sped to her side and caught her before she fell.

“What was that?!” She shouted, turning her attention to Malcolm as she cradled Samantha in her arms.

“Mild sedative,” Malcolm answered nonchalantly. “She’ll wake up in an hour or so, but by then she’ll be in a hotel room on the mainland in China.”

Kara couldn’t find the words to describe how she felt about that. It was equal parts kind and insane and seemed oddly appropriate for Malcolm to have done with everything she knew about the man. Carefully, Kara carried Samantha into the plane, propped her in one of the seats and buckled her in. While she did, Malcolm clambered into the cabin and began the pre-flight checks, reading the plane for take-off.

“Look after Ollie.” Thea instructed at her as Kara jumped back down onto the beach from the plane.

“Of course,” Kara smiled. “Always.”

Thea paused for a moment, weighing up her words. “Chase is different, he knows everything about Oliver and he’s warped with this insane revenge plan. Oliver’s held back from just…you know…because he’s been trying to be better, but if Chase does something, _anything_ to hurt William I don’t know what Oliver will do.”

“I was worried about that too.” Kara admitted quietly.

“I’ve never seen Oliver lose it as bad as he did when William got taken by Darhk, and Chase is so much… _worse_ ,” Thea’s gaze dropped for a moment. “Just…keep him safe from himself.”

_XXX_

The monastery was built more like a labyrinth than any holy site Oliver had ever set foot in. He and Slade had spent near ten minutes searching the East side of the building and he was positive they had moved through the same room at least a half dozen times. That said, the rooms were almost all identical, the place could have just been built specifically to confuse people who didn’t know their way around. With all the noise in his head Oliver couldn’t tell which.

He could feel his usual ingrained cool bleeding away the longer they spent searching. He’d dealt with having people he cared about taken before, more times than he would care to account for, William was different. He was an innocent, completely detached from Oliver’s world of darkness. His son. The only thing in his life that was untainted.

 _“Husband,”_ A whispered voice came in through his comms, Nyssa. _“I believe we’ve found something, West side, central hall.”_

With a quick glance at Slade Oliver started quickly to move, the other man at his side. With practised care they made their may across to the opposite side of the building, each step placed with precise focus to make as little sound as possible despite their speed. It took them less than half a minute. They rounded the last corner to see Nyssa, Alex, and Maggie all looking at an open door a little further up the corridor.

Nyssa was speaking in hushed tones before he and Slade came to a stop. “I heard voices and footsteps up ahead. I estimate at least a dozen hostiles.”

Oliver gave her a curt nod. “Let’s go.”

The four followed behind him as Oliver walked ahead, a haste in his step that betrayed his worry. With little hesitation he stepped through the doorway and rounded the corner that followed. Oliver slowed immediately as he took in the room, and froze to a halt a few steps later.

Stood at the head of the room, flanked on either side by Black Siren and Talia, a host of the latter’s students behind him, was Adrian Chase.

“Hello, Oliver. Welcome back to Purgatory.”

It had been over six months since he had last heard that voice and everything Oliver had been trying to put behind him since came flooding back to the surface. Six months since he had first gone to Earth-38, six months since Kara had begun to convince him that he could be better, that he could be more, that everything Chase had made him believe was untrue. He had started to believe it, he could see a future that wasn’t marred with darkness. A future where he didn’t have to live in the shadows.

Just looking at Adrian Chase destroyed it all in an instant.

At Adrian’s feet kneeled Felicity, hands bound behind her back, cuts on her face. Oliver could see the look in her eyes, the fear that Chase brought out. Oliver took a moment to run his eyes over her injuries, there was nothing serious that he could see, it was all superficial. From how dried the blood looked, he reasoned that she had more than likely sustained them during her kidnapping, as opposed to nay torture Chase had decided to inflict. Felicity offered him the smallest of nods, assuring him that she was okay.

He looked back up to Chase.

“Where’s my son?” Oliver tried to control his anger, his voice a hiss.

Chase grinned. “I love this. Even now, at the end, you’re still ten steps behind.”

“Where is my son?” It was less measured that time, and Oliver’s grip on his bow tightened.

“William?” Chase asked as if he needed the clarification. “Good name. Sort of a sweet kid actually. You sure he’s yours?”

The grin was still there. Oliver felt the anger building. A decade of training and practice, years learning to control his emotions, to focus on the mission. One man had unravelled it all.

 _“Adrian, **where** is my son?!” _The control was gone.

“If you want to get your son back, you know what you have do to.”

Oliver took a step forward. “I know what you want me to do… and I won’t do it. I’m not gonna kill you. No matter what you do, that is _never_ going to happen.”

Chase dropped the grin and somehow didn’t look any less smug. He took a long pause, drawing in an exaggerated breath and releasing it gently. With drawn out movements, Chase placed the tip of his sword down on the ground in front of him and rested both of his hands one on top of the other on the base of the hilt, like some obscene walking aid.

“I’m going to give you a choice, Oliver.”

Calm. Too calm. Chase had always been on edge, the whole time Oliver had known him. There was always a desperate energy underneath him, a need to get to the next thing. Oliver tilted his head fractionally to look at Alex and gave her a small nod. She didn’t return the gesture, instead slowly reaching down to her wrist, for the signal watch that rested there.

Chase raised his sword again, pressed the blade against the back of Felicity’s neck. Oliver felt himself twitch involuntarily, needing to reach for an arrow. A pointed look from Talia stopped him dead.

“You kill me, or I kill the woman you love, and you will _never_ know where your son is.”

There wasn’t chance for either of them to say another word. The wall behind Oliver caved in with a monumental _boom_. He didn’t need to turn to know that Kara had arrived.

“Get him.” Oliver’s voice was hardly more than a snarled whisper, but he knew Kara would hear him.

She shot forward, the displacement of air from her speed whipping the vines and leaves that had grown all through the structure all over. For a moment, Oliver felt something approaching relief, gladness. Kara gave him a security, just knowing she was there made the tension leave him a little.

But she didn’t make it all the way to Chase. A shriek bellowed out into the room, Black Siren stepping forward, mouth open. The sonic scream knocked Kara out of the sky and back a few feet. Kara dropped to the ground just beside Felicity, her hands covering her ears at the pain the scream caused her. Oliver and Alex called out her name in sync, both of them readying to move forward to help her.

Chase’s laugh cut them short.

Oliver felt the blood drain from his face as he watched Chase reach inside his jacket with his free hand, he saw it coming fractions of a second before the green glow bled out into the room. Unceremoniously, Chase dropped the rock to the floor and kicked it towards Kara.

“Did you really think _I_ wouldn’t know, Oliver?” The thin veneer of calm was breaking, Oliver could see Chase’s rage coming out in almost an equal match to his own. “I keep telling you that I know **_everything_** about you. I am **_always_** ten steps ahead.”

Kara had gone all the way to the ground, writhing with the pain that the lump of Kryptonite was causing her. The image coursed sickly through Oliver. For a brief second, he was convinced that he should have killed Chase when he had the chance.

“Change your mind about killing me now?”

The last of Oliver’s control was gone. He lurched at Chase, lips peeling back from his teeth. There was a low growling coming up through Oliver’s throat that had nothing to do with any combat training he had ever undergone and his free hand crooked into talons. In that moment, Oliver knew what Chase’s blood was going to taste like.

Chase surged forward to meet him. An overhead swipe with his sword came down and Oliver threw his bow up to block it, and the sharp blade glanced off his Nth Metal bow with a satisfying _ching_.

All around him, Oliver could see his allies spreading out to fight.

Almost surprised with how easily his sword was deflected by Oliver's bow, Chase followed it up with a clenched fist. Oliver steered the first punch outward right and used the momentum to sidestep left. Chase followed the shift without hesitation and went for his face. Oliver rolled his head away from the strike and felt the cold metal of Chase’s sword glance against his temple, not close enough to break the skin. Instinct told Oliver to block low and a knee-shattering straight kick smashed into his forearm. He redirected the follow-up elbow strike, grabbing it and forcing Chase back a few paces.

Oliver used the momentum to follow up a full counter attack. He stepped into Chase’s space and lashed out with a series of punches and kicks with such power and speed that Chase barely had time to block them all. It kept Chase on the backfoot, forcing him to work his way backwards up a flight of stairs that led to a small balcony running along one wall of the room. Oliver kicked out and landed the blow square in Chase’s gut, sending him staggering back.

With a few seconds respite, Oliver glanced out at his friends. Across the room, Alex fought back to back with Maggie, inching her way towards Kara. That was enough for him to double down on Chase.

Oliver charged at Chase again. He shot out a right fisted strike that shattered against Chase’s temple. He recoiled for a moment but shot back quickly, swinging his sword around. On instinct Oliver brought his bow up to deflect the attack. That time, Chase was expecting the new resistance that his bow had and pressed that attack hard, forcing Oliver back a pace. Oliver planted his feet and pushed back gripping his bow with both hands and throwing Chase back again. Without missing a beat, Oliver struck out with another kick, sending Chase staggering. Once again he bounced back, lunging for another attack but Oliver was ready for it. With a swift movement, he kicked Chase’s sword from his hand and struck out with his bow, Chase’s back slammed against the stone railing.

“There’s the killer I know and love.”

Oliver drove his bow into Chase’s chest. “Tell me where my son is!”

Again, Chase laughed. Anger spiralling, Oliver connected an uppercut and Chase tumbled over the ledge and dropped back onto the ground floor with a thud. Oliver followed without hesitation. He dropped to the floor, discarded his bow, and grappled Chase before he had the chance to get back to his feet. Oliver secured Chase in a headlock, arm pressing firmly down on his throat.

It would have been all too easy to snap his neck.

The thought went through his mind unbidden.

By the time Oliver looked up, Chase’s team had been taken neutralised. Nyssa stood over her sister’s unconscious form, Slade keeping a watchful eye on Black Siren, and Alex trying to help Kara to her feet. The Kryptonite was gone, presumably discarded by Alex. Maggie had cut Felicity free and was checking her injuries.

“Do it, Oliver,” Chase choked out. “You know you want to.”

There was a part of him that agreed, a part of him that wanted to kill Chase for everything that he had done.

“Yeah, okay,” Oliver fought to keep his voice level. “Adrian, tell me. Tell me where my son is!”

“Never,” Chase hissed out, still struggling against Oliver. “It’s all over, but only if you do it. Do it, Oliver, and show everyone. Show yourself who you really are.”

Slade, Alex, Maggie, Nyssa, Felicity, and Kara. They stood across the room, none of them making a move towards him. Kara was hardly on her feet, still trembling a little from the Kryptonite exposure. The choice pressed on him for a few long moments. A little more pressure and Chase’s neck would snap, he would be dead and everyone would be safe. It would mean proving Chase right, but would it? Chase was sure that he was a murderer, that he killed because he _enjoyed_ it, because he _wanted_ to take lives. Even with an arm around Chase’s neck, even knowing what he had done, Oliver didn’t want to kill him, but killing him would make the people he cared about safer.

Then he looked up, he caught Kara’s eyes, and everything that had happened in the last six months came back.

 _“ **No!** ” _Oliver roared, dropping his grasp and shoving Chase the rest of the way down to the ground. As Oliver got to his feet, he snatched Chase’s pistol from the holster on his thigh and dismantled it. Tossing the gun into a corner, Oliver stepped around Chase to join his friends. Then he turned back. “That’s who I was. That’s who I _was before!_ It’s not who I am now. You can blame me for your father’s death for the rest of your life. I am _done_ blaming myself for mine.”

Oliver turned his back on Chase, his gaze immediately locking onto Kara. Even with her gritted teeth, panting breath, hunched over on one knee, she smiled at him. That smile as bright as a star, a smile that somehow, unfailingly, always made him feel as though there was hope. He didn’t get the chance to make it all the way to her.

“I knew it would come to this,” Chase hadn’t finished speaking before Oliver rounded on him. “Your son is dead, Oliver.”

The words hit Oliver like cyanide. His breath locked up momentarily with the force of his emotions and he felt a jagged current flood through every nerve ending in his body. He could hardly move. Somewhere under his eye, a muscle twitched with the supressed will to do violence.

Then he stared to reset. Something was forcing his nerves back into working. Oliver could feel himself shaking, and with it a soupy, suffocating quality to the air in his lungs. His limbs were moulded in lead and his hands felt as though he wore thick cotton gloves with a low electric current fizzling though them.

On the periphery of his senses, Oliver could sense Kara had gotten to her feet and was making her way towards him.

He didn’t give her the chance to get all the way to him. Oliver started forward, gripping Chase by the collar and wrenching him up to his knees.

“I don’t believe you, because you’re a liar. You’re lying to me to manipulate me into doing what you want. But, Adrian, here’s the thing. If you are telling the truth… if you killed my son, I am never going to be the person you want me to be. Not ever.”

With that Oliver shoved Chase back to the ground, getting to his feet, trying to control his breathing.

 _“Oliver, do you copy?”_ Lena’s voice came through the comms.

“I’m here.” He pressed a hand to the activator in his chest to answer.

_“He's lying. I think I’ve found your son, there’s a small thermal signature on a dock on the west shore of the island.”_

His gaze snapped up to Kara immediately, even if Lena had only been broadcasting to him he knew Kara would have been listening. “Go now.”

She didn’t need anymore, even marred by the Kryptonite exposure Kara sped off in a haze of blue and red, the adrenaline rush was all she needed. Chase was on his feet by the time Oliver turned around again, none of them had time to react before Chase threw down a flash grenade, forcing them to cover their eyes at the blinding light.

Chase was gone.

“Where’s Kara going?” Alex asked hurriedly.

“Lena thinks she found William,” He answered before turning to look at Slade and Nyssa, jabbing the V of two fingers toward Talia and Black Siren. “Get them to the cells then get yourselves back to the beach.”

“What are you doing?” Maggie stepped forward.

Oliver bent down to grab his bow. “I’m going after Chase, he’s not getting off this island.”

_XXX_

Oliver made it to the pier no more than a dozen meters behind Chase, but it was enough for him to have leapt onto his boat. The moment he saw Oliver, Chase went for the throttle and Oliver sprang back into motion.

The boat didn’t move.

Oliver almost couldn’t fight down the urge to smile. Kara had clearly made it there first, she’d saved William and broken something essential so that Chase couldn’t escape. The frustration on Chase’s face was evident, the smug look burning into irritation. His plan was falling apart faster than he could account for it. Oliver put on a fresh burst of speed, feeling an adrenaline rush push down some of his exhaustion.

He had been awake for almost forty-eight hours, aside from briefly passing out after being shot by a Daxamite warship, and it was catching up with him. His fight with Chase had been enough to drain what little energy reserves he still had. The only thing keeping him going was the thought of William.

As Oliver ran down the pier Chase wrenched open the cabin door, looking for something. It must have been where he had kept William. Oliver was right, Kara had gotten there first. The cabin was empty, and Chase turned to face Oliver with a furious scowl.

“You’re finished,” Oliver snarled, coming to a stop on the pier beside the boat. “You might have been ten steps ahead, Adrian, you might have known about her, but even you can’t account for Supergirl.”

As he spoke, Chase had stepped off the boat and onto the pier in front of him.

“Do you know why?” Oliver asked, tensing to strike. “Because she is so much better than us.”

With that Oliver shot forward.

Chase tried to sidestep the tackle but mistimed it, Oliver’s shoulder smashed into him and the two men staggered, almost losing their footing on the damp wood underfoot. From somewhere, Chase produced a revolver and tried to shoot Oliver, but he failed the gun aside with his bow, smashing the Nth Metal weapon into Chase’s elbow to elicit a satisfying yelp of pain, and tripped him. Chase hooked at Oliver with his injured arm and they both went down on the splintering pier.

The gun was gone, as was Oliver’s bow, skittering across the wood and falling into the sea, but Chase snatched a knife from his belt. It swung around at Oliver and he batted it down almost clumsily, the exhaustion pulled at him again. Oliver’s other hand punched at Chase’s head, missed and bounced off his shoulder. He grinned fiercely and headbutted Oliver in the face. The lack of any substantial pain meant his nose hadn’t been broken but Oliver could still feel the faint trickle of moisture that told him he was bleeding.

Then Chase was on him, twisting Oliver back against the pier and punching solidly into his body. Oliver blocked one or two of the punches, but the strength was puddling out of him and the muscles in his arms were losing interest. Above him, Chase’s face twisted into savage triumph, he thought the fight was over. He hit Oliver once more, with great care, in the groin. Oliver convulsed and curled into himself reflexively.

With a smug look on his face, Chase got into a kneeling position, almost lying on top of him, like a sated lover.

“Looks like you’re the one who’s finished, Oliver.” Chase grinned.

Oliver turned his head and spat a mouthful of blood onto the wooden floor of the pier, then looked back up at Chase. From somewhere, he summoned a grin.

 _“That’s…fucking…enough.”_ Oliver hissed the words out.

The moment of surprise Chase registered at his words was all he needed. Oliver snatched a hand back and grabbed an arrow from his quiver. With all the strength he could muster he brought his arm around and jammed the projectile into Chase’s shoulder. Chase recoiled in pain, calling out with an anguished scream. Oliver kept his hand firmly clenched around the small bulk at the front of the arrow, ensuring the metal tip was firmly buried in Chase’s muscle. Then he tapped the activator button.

The taser fizzled into life, and the burning smell of electric in flesh filled Oliver’s nostrils. Chase’s scream doubled in volume, and he made it halfway to his feet before collapsing backward onto the pier, writhing in pain. It lasted another second before the scream cut off, another three before the blowback circuit on the taser cut in and the current was terminated.

Oliver slumped upright, Chase was out cold. Something approaching a laugh slipped through his lips and Oliver fell back flat against the pier. He could feel the gentle spray of sea foam splashing up from under him, the cool water tickling the back of his neck.

The last thing Oliver saw before blackness overtook him was a faint blue blur in the sky above him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's Chase down...for now. And everyone survived...for now.
> 
> I had a stupid amount of fun writing that last scene, but I'm not sure if you guys will totally agree with what I did. I felt like within the context of that situation, the F-bomb was totally earned, but if enough of you guys disagree on that as something Oliver would have said I'll go back and take the line out, it's not like it's instrumental to that scene anyway. 
> 
> As I said in the first note, I had to change the original ending of this chapter, which was Felicity getting killed by Chase. I wrote it in purely for dramatic impact, but on reading it back it just felt too forced so I went back and changed it. But I'd done my planning for the next 3 chapters on the assumption that was going to happen, so I now need to go and tweak some stuff for the future.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after a few action heavy chapters, things are finally winding down. The next three are pretty much going to be exclusively character driven, with all the action happening off-screen so to speak, for the most part.  
> As per usual, this isn't fully proof read, so feel free to point out any mistakes for me to come back and fix.

It had seemed almost instinctual for Alex to volunteer to look after William. With Oliver out cold and Kara refusing to leave his side, the other potential choices for child-sitters were not ideal. For one, Felicity, Oliver’s ex-fiancé and prone to awkward babbling. That left Nyssa and Slade which…well Maggie was not keen to put either of them in charge of a vulnerable child.

The moment Kara had dropped William off with them before rushing back to Oliver, Maggie had seen something in his eyes that she recognised. She remembered seeing it in herself, the lost little girl who had been abandoned by her family, scared at the world with no idea where to turn. She knew the kind of damage that fear could do. So, when Alex had volunteered them both to look after William Maggie hadn’t fought her on it.

It wasn’t until they finally got back to the beachhead that they managed to actually speak with William in any way beyond giving him instructions for how to navigate through the forest safely.

“Hey William,” Alex dropped into a crouch in front of him, her voice somehow instinctively motherly. “How are you doing?”

William’s gaze was locked firmly on the ground in front of him, he had walled himself off. For a moment, all Maggie could see in front of her was Oliver. The teenager in front of her bore a lot of resemblance to his father. Alex cast Maggie a look back over her shoulder and caught her eyes, silently asking for her support. Following her fiancé’s lead, Maggie knelt down on the rocky beach in front of William.

“I know you’re probably really scared right now, William,” Maggie began softly. “But you’re safe now. Your mom is safe too, and we’re going to take you to see her as soon as we can.”

That got William’s attention. He looked up briefly, looking into Maggie’s eyes almost desperately to make sure that she was telling the truth. There was a maturity there that Maggie hadn’t expected to see in a thirteen year old boy. He had been kidnapped twice in as many years, had his life threatened by forces beyond his control. It would have been enough to scar anyone his age, make them fragile for life, but that wasn’t the impression Maggie got from William. She saw not damage, but resilience.

He really was Oliver’s son.

“And I know that everything with your dad…”

Maggie trailed off and looked over her shoulder. Kara was still sat beside the makeshift cot she had put together, watching over Oliver’s unconscious form. How did she even begin to help William process that? Her own father had been so cold hearted that he had discarded her without a second thought. She couldn’t help a scared child to understand the secret that Oliver had kept.

Thankfully, Alex took over for her.

“I know a little about dads keeping secrets,” Alex began softly. “But your dad, Oliver, he’s a good guy. He and your mom had a lot of good reasons for keeping secrets from you. Just give them a chance.”

William nodded his head, still looking down at the ground, then he lifted his head up to meet Alex’s eyes, and she beamed.

“I’m Alex,” She smiled warmly at him, before reaching her hand out and intertwining her fingers with Maggie’s. “And this beautiful creature is Maggie, my fiancé.”

William’s eyes went wide for a moment, gaze flickering back and forth between the two of them. Maggie bit her tongue, forcing down the initial wave of frustration that hit her. She had no idea about Samantha’s personal views, or what she might have brought William up believing. The look of sheer bewilderment on his face brought all sorts of memories up to the surface, things that Maggie had actively avoided for over half her life. Whatever William said next, Maggie resolved not to let herself blame him.

Then, William’s gaze turned curious.

“So you guys are…” He didn’t seem to want to say it.

That was when Maggie saw it. The look in William’s eyes was the same look she remembered seeing in the mirror when her fourteen year old self had realised she had a crush on her best friend, the same look Alex had in her eyes when Maggie had first casually remarked on her sexuality. Maggie knew it all too well, she knew Alex did too, and from the way her hand had tightened its grip on Maggie’s momentarily she must have recognised the look as well.

What was the right thing to say?

Maggie thought back to the scared little girl, left behind by her father, wishing she knew what she had done wrong. It took her far too long to comes to terms with who she was, her father had made sure of it. The night he had left her behind was ingrained in her memory, Maggie knew she would never forget a single detail of it as long as she lived. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, she had grown up, she had learnt that her father was the one who had done wrong. Maggie had a chance to make sure William didn’t feel the same. She had the chance to be to William the person she had needed as a little girl.

What would she have wanted to hear?

What did she deserve to have been told?

“Hey, Kiddo,” Maggie smiled at him. “So, um, I know that look on your face right now because I saw it in the mirror, every day, for weeks when I was your age. I know what you’re feeling is probably confusing and kinda scary, but just know what whatever it is you’re feeling, it is valid, and you should never be ashamed of it. Now, I don’t know your mom very well, but from what I saw today she loves you so much. And your dad, he’s one of the best men I know, and he might not be great at showing it but he loves more deeply than most people. So, whenever you’re ready, you can tell them. I know it might seem scary, but every time someone steps up any says who they are, it makes the world a better place.”

The look on William’s face was such a hurricane Maggie hardly knew what to pick out of it. Relief, gratitude, panic, happiness, worry, all swirling around at once. Maggie didn’t need to try an unpack it, she knew, she remembered what it was like to be putting it all together for the first time. Then, William threw himself forward from where he had been perch on one of the crates stacked on the beach and tackled Maggie in a cobra-like embrace. For a moment, Maggie went stiff, unsure of herself, then returned the embrace. She gently wrapped her arms around William and ran her hand up and down his back in reassuring movements.

Over the head buried in her shoulder, Maggie’s attention landed on Alex. There were tears brimming in her eyes and a look on her face that Maggie couldn’t read. Carefully, Maggie took one of her hands that had been embracing William and reached it out to Alex, who took it without hesitation, a smile overtaking her lips.

It didn’t take Maggie much to put it together at that.

Her and Alex needed to talk.

_XXX_

There as a warmth radiating over him that jarred Oliver sluggishly awake, his mind had still been expecting the icy cold of the winds that swept over Lian Yu from the North China Sea. He inhaled reflexively as he stirred awake and that familiar cold swelled in his lungs, forcing him the rest of the way to consciousness. Eyes flickering open, Oliver’s gaze landed on Kara’s features, nervously looking down at him, eyes ever bright with hope. That had been the warmth he had felt. Kara ran hotter than most people, side effect of her Kryptonian physiology.

“Hey.” His voice was horse, still groggy with sleep.

Kara’s grip on Oliver’s hand tightened momentarily, then she threw herself over him into a hug.

“You had me worried.” She murmured against his cheek.

“I’ll try not to make it a habit.”

Oliver reached around with one arm that felt as though it had been cased in lead and wrapped it around Kara, returning the embrace. They stayed like that for a long moment. Oliver’s mind finally released the tension that he had been holding since he received Lyla’s call on Earth-38. He was alive, Kara was safe, they had taken Chase down…

“William.” Oliver gasped the name, jerking upright.

Kara grasped both of his hands with her own, squeezed reassuringly and caught Oliver’s gaze again. “He’s okay, he’s safe. I got him out. Alex and Maggie are keeping an eye on him. I thought about flying him to Samantha, but I didn’t want to scare him anymore after everything…”

Oliver looked over her shoulder, seeing Alex and Maggie across the beachhead, crouched down and talking to William, who had perched on one of the crates they had brought. The rest of the tension puddled out of him and Oliver felt his muscles relax for the first time in almost a day. Oliver released a long exhale of breath, closing his eyes for a few seconds. His mind turned back to Hong Kong, meditating with Tatsu.

There as a fear building in the back of Oliver’s mind. Not the pressing dread he had felt over Chase, the desperate scrambling need to protect the people he cared about. It was different, subtler, but leaning down on him all the same. William. He knew. For all the love Oliver had for his son, he had never wanted William to know the truth, not until he was older. The secret Oliver lived day by day was too much to put on a child, an innocent.

_I told you Oliver, everything you touch is poisoned._

Chase wormed his way into Oliver’s mind, hissing the twisted insight in the dark recesses.

_Shut up, Adrian._

“Where’s Chase?” Oliver asked aloud, opening his eyes again.

Kara offered a small smile. “Locked up in Slade’s old cell. He thought that would be amusing.”

“I’m sorry, Kara,” Oliver began, head dropping. “I should have known that Chase—"

Kara cut him off pointedly, one finger pressed over his lips like she was shushing a rowdy child. When Oliver seized up, and fixed her with a puzzled glance, Kara spoke.

“You have _nothing_ to apologise for,” She insisted. “Even if we’d known he had Kryptonite I would have come anyway. It’s what we do for the people we love.”

Oliver sighed, tipping his head forward. It was there again, the words he had said to Chase on the pier, echoing around in his mind. _She is so much better._ Over and over again, Kara reminded him of how incredible she was, her unfailing ability to show kindness. He didn’t deserve her.

Kara matched the movement Oliver made, resting her forehead lightly against his.

“Don’t go there.” She whispered.

Oliver found a wisp of a smile creeping over his lips. Of course she knew what he was thinking.

“I love you.”

He felt Kara smile more than he saw it. “You should, I’m pretty amazing.”

That drew a genuine laugh out of him. Once again Kara proved how easily she could work her way through his walls and draw out the part of him that hadn’t been hardened by his years living with the darkness. The laugh brought him back upright, and Kara did the same, a smile bright on her lips.

“I love you too.”

Oliver returned Kara’s smile, then cast his eyes over the beach. Felicity was sat on a large rock typing away on a tablet, Oliver could see her mouth moving but at the distance he couldn’t make out any words. Slade and Nyssa were actually talking over by a stack of equipment, he had clearly earned at least something approaching trust from the assassin. Then his attention landed on the concrete cube that marked the entrance to the prison. Chase was down there and some dark part of Oliver felt himself being drawn towards it.

Some part of him _wanted_ to talk to Chase, but it was more than that. It flowed over Oliver like a harsh tidal wave. He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to _gloat_. All of Chase’s machinations, every scheme, so assured that he was on top, but Oliver had won. Despite it all, Oliver had proved him wrong, and there was a larger part that he had expected that wanted to go to Chase and remind him of that.

“You don’t need to see him.” Kara was holding his hand again, clearly having noticed the direction of his gaze.

“I need to know—”

“I already do,” Kara cut over him. “When I was throwing Chase in his cell Black Siren…confessed,” At Oliver’s questioning look she continued. “She told me she’s been tailing us ever since I crashed your birthday party to ask you to help find Jeremiah.”

Months. Chase had been waiting all that time just to get at him. There was no way that Chase could have predicted that Oliver would fall for Kara, so why had he waited? Before those thoughts could begin to manifest in full Oliver pushed them down. He had already spent more time than he should have trying to decipher the level of Chase’s psychosis. The mind of a man like Chase was a place even Oliver didn’t want to spend too much time. Oliver knew everything he needed to know, he wouldn’t let Chase get another victory by obsessing.

Oliver turned his attention back to Kara. Even though her smile had drifted away a little at the weight of what she had told him, Kara still radiated that ever present light and warmth. Oliver rolled his hand around, slipping it out of her grasp for a moment before threading their fingers together. He brought their joined hands up, tipping his head down and planting a light kiss on the back of her hand.

“Thank you.”

Kara drew her eyebrows together in questioning. “For what?”

Oliver smiled. “For being you.”

Once the strength had returned to his limbs, Oliver got up from the makeshift cot and crossed the breach towards William. There was a whirlpool of thoughts raging in his mind, what did he say to the son he had hardly gotten to know? He had been in William’s position, had learnt things about his own parents that he would rather have never found out. There was no doubt in his mind that William would be thinking things down a similar line. Not only had he not known Oliver, not known that he had a father his whole life, but at the same time as finding out _that_ truth he had learnt that his father was The Green Arrow. Oliver couldn’t see a way for that to be easy to deal with.

William seemed to be getting on well with Alex and Maggie though. Across the beachhead, Oliver could see the three of them talking, even laughing a little. It was reassuring to see, and filled Oliver with a warmth that ran through him on an instinctual level. Instinct was deep-set for him when it came to William. His mother had talked about it, he had read accounts, heard most of his life about the power of the connection between parent and child. Looking at him across the beach, knowing that William finally knew who he was, he felt it more deeply than he had ever expected.

“Hey guys,” Oliver spoke softly as he stepped up behind Alex and Maggie. The two of them turned around to look at him and he smiled. “Mind giving me and William a minute alone?”

Alex cast a glance back to William, whose gaze had turned back to the rocky floor of the beach. Oliver had been expecting it, there was no part of him that thought things would be easy with William. After a few seconds that seemed to drag out far longer than it had any right to, Maggie and Alex got to their feet. Maggie gave Oliver a sympathetic smile, fingers of one hand still threaded through Alex’s, and the two walked away towards Kara.

Oliver swallowed hard and took a tentative step towards William.

“Hey, buddy,” Oliver dropped down into a squat in front of William, putting him on eye level. “So, I’m sure you’re probably really confused right now but I’m gonna do my best to…to help you out.”

William looked up for a moment. “The man who took me told me you’re my father?”

“I—uh, he was telling the truth,” Oliver hung his head before looking back up to William. “I’m sorry that your mom and I never told you, but well…” Oliver looked down at his Green Arrow suit for a moment. “We thought you’d be safer if you didn’t know. And I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you from this.”

William stayed quiet, his gaze dropping from Oliver and off out towards the horizon over the harsh waters surrounding Lian Yu.

“I know that you probably don’t trust me or _like me_ a whole lot right now, but I want you to know that I am going to be there for you from now on. I’m your father, and I’m going to do everything in my power to earn a place in your life. I am never, ever walking away from you.”

There was a long silence there, where William’s attention slid back towards to Oliver as he seemed to be processing what he had heard. Oliver know how much he was putting on the line with William. After everything that had happened there was every chance that William would want nothing to do with him, that he would hate him for lying, hate him for putting both William and Samantha in danger. Almost reflexively, Oliver prepared himself for the worst.

Then, William met his eyes. “So, you’re a superhero?”

Oliver couldn’t fight off a slightly hysterical laugh from escaping his lips. “Yeah, that’s what people say. You—you’re not mad?”

William shrugged. “My dad’s a superhero, that’s kinda cool.”

The smile that Oliver found overtaking his lips was impossible to supress. At the same time, he could feel a heat on his back that he knew immediately was Kara. He turned to look over his shoulder and saw her stood across the beach beaming at him.

William didn’t hate him. From the reaction he’d gotten there was every chance that he could make up for the time he had lost. With William knowing the truth, there was no reason for him to stay away. He had the chance to be a father.

Oliver Queen looked to the future and didn’t see darkness. He was happy.

The faint sounds of whirring engines reached his ears and Oliver got to his feet, looking out over the sea. In the distance, he made out the approaching form of the seaplane.

“William, you stay here, okay?” Oliver looked down at his son.

William nodded his agreement and Oliver turned on his heel to head across to Kara, Maggie, and Alex.

“I need you guys to take William back to his mother. Get them both to Star City and have John check them into The Starling Royal for a few nights.” He addressed Maggie and Alex.

Kara jumped in before either of them could answer. “Oliver don’t tell me you’re doing what I think you are.”

“I have to, Kara.” He sighed.

Oliver had known it from the moment he woke up. Even if Kara had tried to talk him out of it, even if he knew he would be better off not doing it. He had to speak to Adrian. There was no part of him that was capable of leaving the island without it. The rational part of him knew that it was a bad idea, that all going down to the cells would do was enrage Chase and pull Oliver back into the darkness Chase exuded. Even knowing that, he couldn’t just leave. It had been the same after he had defeated Slade. He needed to closure. He needed that last conversation. Oliver needed Chase to know that, after everything, he hadn’t won.

There must have been something in his tone that stopped Kara from arguing with him.

“Fine, but I’m staying. I’ll fly you back to the mainland.”

Oliver turned back to Alex and Maggie. “Will you two be okay to look after William for a while?”

“Absolutely,” Alex didn’t hesitate. “He’s a pretty great kid, Oliver.”

That time, Oliver didn’t even attempt to stop the fatherly smile that took over him.

“Yeah, it’s kinda amazing how well adjusted he is. Clearly takes after his mother.” Maggie grinned at him.

_“Maggie!”_ Alex and Kara scolded in sync, and the detective only laughed at it.

There was something reassuring about it, that even in the face of everything they had learnt about him Maggie refused to turn down her insistence on teasing him. On the periphery of his memory, Oliver saw Tommy, walking through the doors of the mansion with a wisecrack about yachts. Oliver held onto his smile for a few moments, shaking his head at Maggie, then turned back towards William.

By the time Oliver was stood, once again, in front of his son, the seaplane was just about touching down on the dark waters surrounding the island.

“Hey, buddy,” Oliver spoke, and William looked up to him. “My friends are going to go take your to your mom. Is it okay if Maggie and Alex look after you for a while?”

“You’re not coming with me?” William asked, seemingly disappointed.

Oliver dropped down to his knees so he could look William in the eye. “I can’t, not yet. I need to stay here and make sure the man who took you can’t do it again. But I’ll meet you and your mom back in Star City as soon as I can, okay?”

The mere mention of Chase seemed to be enough to stun William into agreeing with him. A little nervously, William nodded his understanding. Oliver offered him the warmest smile he could muster and gave him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before getting back to his feet. Alex and Maggie were already stood behind him, and Oliver thanked them before walking back across to Kara.

It took them less than five minutes to repack the equipment onto the plane thanks to Kara’s speed and, after one final goodbye to William and a promise that Oliver would see him soon, Malcolm kicked the plane into life and took off. Oliver lingered on the beachhead with Kara at his side, her fingers laced through his own. It wasn’t until the plane was out of sight that Oliver spoke a word.

“I need you to head back up to the monastery, round up Talia’s students and lock them up in the cells until ARGUS can move them somewhere more suitable.”

Kara’s grip on his hand didn’t waver for a second. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

“No,” Oliver turned to face her. “I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

“Oliver…”

“I can’t just leave,” Oliver paused and let out a heavy breath. “I have to talk to him.”

Kara looked like she wanted to object, but she stopped herself. After a moment, she spoke.

“Twenty minutes, or I’m coming down there.”

Oliver let a grin tug at the corner of one lip. “Yes ma’am.”

Kara chuckled and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Maggie’s rubbing off on you.”

Letting his hand drop from its grasp on Kara’s, Oliver turned on his heel and started towards the concrete block that marked the entrance to the ARGUS prison.

For better or for worse, he was going to have a conversation with Adrian Chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might have noticed that I aged William up a little in this. In canon, he's only 11 at the time of Lian Yu going boom, but I wanted to make him a little older so it'll be easier for me to write him. William is going to be a bit of a driving force for a lot of character interactions going forward, and especially with his whole coming out arc that I'll be touching on, I wanted him to be older. It's mostly down to my own personal experiences, I was in my early teens when I realised that I wasn't heterosexual, and purely on the basis of wanting to do a good job of writing William's experience later down the line I figured it would be helpful to draw on some of my own thoughts. 
> 
> As usual, please drop a comment if you enjoyed, always helps me to write when I hear from you all.   
> Anyhow, I'll see you all in the next one.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one is a little late. I've had a stressful week.

There was a chill in the cells below Lian Yu. With reinforced concrete walls and the bitter cold of the North China Sea, it wasn’t a surprise. Still, it gave way to a strange sense. Like something just under skin, creeping through and setting every hair on edge. Oliver had felt it before, the first time he had locked Slade up in the cell that Adrian Chase now occupied.

It had been a little over four years since he had put Slade away, since Oliver had walked away and left a man who had once been his best friend behind to scream his madness at the walls. There had been a guilt he remembered feeling then, a part of him that had wanted to do more to help Slade beyond leaving him as far away from the rest of the world as possible. He had hoped the cure would work on him the way it had done on Roy, that the Mirakuru haze would eventually lift and Slade would be able to see the world clearly again. It finally had done, and there was a part of Oliver that wished he had checked in on Slade more often, that he might have seen Slade’s return to sanity sooner.

Guilt.

Slade had told him he needed to let go and Oliver knew he was right.

Adrian Chase was one more loose end he needed to file away first.

Oliver did his best to ignore the way his hand trembled slightly as he pushed open the heavy door that gave way to the cell. The chill bit at his skin with more ferociousness as Oliver stepped through, leaving the door open in his wake. The sounds of his footfalls reverberated through the room as he stepped forward.

“I knew you couldn’t stay away, Oliver.”

Bile rose in his gut at the sound of that voice. He had pointedly kept his gaze away from the cell as he had stepped into the room, but as Chase spoke Oliver found his eyes pulled to him. Chase had been stripped of his jacket, his tool belts and holsters, even his shoes. Kara clearly hadn’t been taking any chances when she put him in there. He was left standing bare foot, in a bloodied t-shirt and cargo pants. There as a hole in the shirt where Oliver had stabbed him with the taser arrow, the edges of the wound a sickening black with the burns. Chase stood, hands wrapped around the bars of the cell door, a twisted grin on his face. Somehow, he didn’t look like a man whose four year revenge scheme had just fallen apart in front of him.

“How’s William?” Chase asked after a long beat of silence.

Oliver gritted his teeth but didn’t rise to the bait. It didn’t take much insight to see what Chase was trying to do. The anger that swirled in Oliver’s guts didn’t recede an inch, looking at Chase made it worse but that wasn’t the point. The last year and a half; fighting Chase, falling in love with Kara, trying to become a better men, it had all taught him more about control than all his time training with Yao Fei, or Slade, or Talia.

Anatoly had told him once that giving the monster an identity gave it more power, that he couldn’t be Oliver Queen and The Hood. Chase had helped Oliver realise that the monster only had as much power as he gave it, that he didn’t need to go all the way into the dark to survive. Kara helped him find more meaning in being Oliver Queen, that love was more powerful than the darkness. There was more to him. The killer Chase had been so sure of wasn’t who he was, not anymore.

“Why did you wait?” Oliver asked patiently, coming to a stop two meters clear of the cell door. “You waited six months to enact all of this. Why?”

Chase effected something close to a laugh. “You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?” Something about the silence Oliver maintained must have pushed Chase, because he continued. “I told you I knew everything about you, Oliver. I know about Barry Allen over in Central City, his little team at STAR Labs running around fighting meta-humans. I know how Sara Lance and Ray Palmer travel through time changing history. I didn’t know about _her_.” Chase jabbed the point of his index finger towards the ceiling. “I wanted to. And then, you went and fell in love. You couldn’t have made it any easier for me.”

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Chase knew about Barry, about Sara, about all of his friends and allies, Oliver had always suspected it anyway. Still, hearing Chase admit it sent a cold shiver down his spine. In all the time he had gone up against Prometheus, Oliver had never thought to warn his friends that they might have been at risk. The moment Oliver knew Black Siren was working for Chase he knew that she would have told him everything about the STAR Labs team, even if he didn’t already know. After that, it wouldn’t have been a huge leap to find out about Sara and the others. Nate Haywood had manged to figure it out and he wasn’t half as driven as Chase.

“You’re wrong, Adrian. If it wasn’t for Kara I might not have beaten you.”

That time, Chase’s laugh came out in full. “You don’t really believe that you won, do you, Oliver? Your son has finally seen the monster, and I’m sure that pretty new girlfriend of yours has started to realise all the dark and dirty secrets that you’re keeping from her.” Chase pressed his forehead against the bars of his cell, as if he were trying to force himself to fit though the gap. “And you really think I won’t get out of here? I waited four years, Oliver, I can wait a little while longer. If you wanted to win, you should have killed me.”

The part of Oliver that agreed with Chase’s assessment wasn’t any quieter than it had been the moment he decided not to snap his neck. There was an undeniable truth to what Chase said, to what a part of Oliver raged in the dark recesses of his mind. Killing Chase was safer, it was final, the threat he posed would be gone forever. Oliver had made the same calculation when he chose to lock Slade in that very same cell. When he had defeated Slade, Oliver had no guarantee that the madness the Mirakuru caused would wear off, but still he chose not to kill. Chase was no different. Just like Slade, Chase had been sure that Oliver was a killer and a monster, that he chose not to kill to pretend, to hide who he really was.

“I’m sorry, about your father,” Oliver let out a heavy breath after the words. “But William, and Kara, they are not like you. And neither am I. Despite all your sick, vicious little games we’re all fine. William doesn’t hate me and Kara trusts me more than ever. You did all this to prove that I’m like you, but I’m not. Adrian, you—you managed to help me realise that I don’t have to define myself by the darkness, by my father’s death. You made me a better man, whether you meant to or not,” Oliver drew in a breath and squared his shoulders. “Thank you.”

Chase was screaming something, but Oliver ignored it. He turned on a heel and walked back through the door to the room, pulling it shut in his wake. The shouts and cries from in the cell still bled out into the hallway, but the substance of it was lost. With one hand, Oliver slipped the bolt on the door shut and made his way to the ladder.

Kara was waiting for him on the beachhead when Oliver climbed out from the prison. The look on her face gave it away immediately.

“You were listening?” He asked, no trace of the irritation he expected to feel in his voice. 

Kara just smiled sheepishly and glanced down at the ground. “I was worried. I could tell how much this guy got to you.”

That wasn’t something Oliver could dispute. Adrian Chase had gotten to him in a way that no one else had. Malcolm, Ra’s, Darhk, even Slade’s Mirakuru induced quest for revenge, none of them had managed to get into his mind like Chase. Adrian had done his research, had known exactly which nerves to touch. He had exposed the truth about Oliver’s father, made him realise the cold-blooded murderer he himself had once been, convinced him that he still was that monster. There were still lines in the sand, and Oliver knew that he would cross them if he ever needed to. But Chase was wrong, because Oliver didn’t enjoy it. The cost on his soul every time he killed, or tortured, it was ever apparent to him. There was a price Oliver knew he had paid over the years and it was a price he had no doubt that he would need to pay again.

The woman in front of him was ever present proof that his soul wasn’t beyond redemption. Oliver knew that even if he did have to cross the line and go back into the dark, Kara would be there to light his way home. She was his lighthouse, a beacon in the storm.

The swell of emotion that stirred up in Oliver took over. Almost unconsciously, he stepped forward, cupped Kara’s face with both hands and dipped down to meet her lips. The icy cold of Lian Yu bled away to impossible warmth as Kara wrapped her arms around Oliver, pulling him close. The tension and emotion of the day must have gotten to Kara as well as she lost herself in the kiss and Oliver dimly registered that she was levitating them both off the ground.

How long it was before they finally broke apart and Kara lowered them back to the ground, neither of them could tell. Oliver had no doubt that the slightly dopey look on Kara’s face was mirrored on his own. Dropping his hands from her face, Oliver caught one of Kara’s hands instead.

“Let’s get off this hell-scape of an island.”

_XXX_

It was a slightly strange sensation.

Oliver found himself knocking on the door of the same room that he and Kara had finally admitted their feelings for each other in three months prior. Only that time, it wasn’t the woman of his affections he was seeking. It was William and his mother. There was a unusual feeling in the pit of his stomach, a strange sense of something…circular. The same place that had decided if he and Kara could try and see what existed between them would also decide his future with his son.

Samantha opened the door, still on the latch, saw Oliver through it and closed it again. There was the distinct rattling of the chain being removed then the door opened again and Samantha stepped out into the hallway with Oliver, softly clicking the door shut behind her.

“William’s asleep.” She offered in way of explanation.

It wasn’t much of a surprise to Oliver. The day had been exhausting on him, and he had dealt with over ten years of sleepless nights that pushed his body and mind to its limits, William had none of his experience.

What had been in ten hour flight on the plane for William and Samantha took less than five minutes for Kara to fly herself and Oliver. As a result they had returned to Star City far in advance of the others. It had given Oliver more than enough time to give his team, plus Lyla, a full debrief on what happened, though Lena had filled them in on most of the details. Lyla had already dispatched a full clean up and security detail to Lian Yu to account for the new occupants of the prison, and Oliver was secure in the knowledge that Chase wouldn’t be escaping under the increased guard.

At Kara’s insistence, Oliver had managed to get an hour of sleep while the plane was still in the air, but his restlessness had gotten the better of him and he had instead gone into City Hall. By the time he had finally managed to file away enough work to give himself some breathing room, he had seen the missed texts from John informing him that William and Samantha were safely in the hotel.

“He’s had a trying day,” Oliver smiled fondly. “But William’s strong, he’ll be fine.”

Samantha sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose before looking back up to Oliver. “I knew this would catch up with us eventually. I just…I wanted more time.”

The tears welling in the corners of Samantha’s eyes almost made their way to Oliver, but he locked it down with practiced cool. He understood Samantha’s distress all too well. Oliver had hoped to keep William away from The Green Arrow for longer, to give him time to have a normal life, a real childhood. After Damian Darhk, Oliver had planned to tell William, had given Samantha a recorded message to pass to William on his 18th birthday. William could have had a chance at a life approaching normal.

Adrian Chase had robbed William of that chance.

“I’m sorry, Samantha,” Oliver swallowed. “I wanted to keep you both as far away from me and _that_ life as possible. I know that I haven’t always been a good man and I’ve certainly not been a good father to William, but now that he knows I think…I’d like to earn a place in his life.”

William had already tentatively agreed with him on that, as surprised as Oliver had been by the open acceptance. It was easier for William though, Oliver reasoned. He was still young, the full perspective wasn’t something that he would see. William would not have thought about the risk, the dangers, the weight that came with Oliver’s other life. All he had seen was his father. A man who he had never been given the chance to know, who was finally there for him.

Samantha on the other hand—

“You’re right,” Samantha gave him a crooked smile. “He’s your son too, Oliver. He’s a lot like you. Now he knows the truth he wouldn’t stay away from you even if I wanted him to.” 

The warmth that flooded up through Oliver’s body was undeniable. He had a chance with William, he could be a father. The initial thrill was snatched from under him as implications tumbled over Oliver like a tidal wave. Just by being in his life William was at even more risk than he already had been. Oliver knew full well his enemies would use William against him if they could. Not just that, his own darkness, the darkness that seem infectious in his family, he would be exposing William to it all. Oliver’s own father, a murderer and serial philanderer. His mother, co-conspirator to The Undertaking. Thea, victim of the lies and betrayals his family stacked up by the dozen.

Which left Oliver himself. Maybe an innocent once. Trust fund baby to playboy extraordinaire. Boyfriend to cheater. Then lost at sea. Yao Fei, Shado, Slade, Maseo, Anatoly, Talia. Killing for survival on Lian Yu to Amanda Waller’s weapon to _Kapiushon_ for The Bratva. All of that to The Hood, The Arrow, The Green Arrow. Outlaw, murderer, vigilante…hero?

Kara would tell him that he was, that despite the darkness that lived in him there was more light. That for all the times he had been forced to draw on the darkness he had done more good because of it, and at the end of the day that was what made him a hero. He wasn’t sure how far he agreed with the sentiment.

With a detachment that Ra’s al Ghul himself would have approved of, Oliver locked down the spiral.

“It might be better for you and Willian to stay in Star City from now on,” Oliver suggested. “My team can keep an eye on you if you’re here. You might be safer.”

Samantha offered him a wan smile. “I was thinking the same thing myself. God knows I don’t want to uproot his whole life again but the closer we are to you and your team, the harder it’ll be for people to get to us, right?”

It was the best solution Oliver could think of. Keeping William and Samantha at arm’s length had done nothing to protect them. Damian Darhk and Adrian Chase had been able to find them and Oliver knew that any adversary who could uncover his true identity could find William if they were dedicated enough. Keeping them close gave him a better chance of keeping them safe.

The thought of sending them to Earth-38 had briefly crossed his mind, but it would be too much of a change. No doubt William would have enjoyed the possibility of meeting aliens, but the risk was too high. National City alone had seen just over a hundred civilian casualties as a result of the Daxamite invasion. From the records he had read at the D.E.O. chronicling some of Superman’s battles in Metropolis, civilian casualties were a fraction too common an occurrence for Oliver to risk sending his son there. The chance would have been minimal, but it was not one Oliver was willing to take.

“I can get a good security system put in,” Oliver provided. “Alarms with direct links to the SCPD and The Bunker. Reinforced doors, walls, windows…anything I can think of to keep you both safe.”

Samantha’s lips curled in her first genuine smile. “You’re going to be a good father, Oliver.”

_XXX_

“I want to thank you again for your help. I owe you a pretty great debt.”

“You allowed me the opportunity to settle my account with my sister. Consider your debt paid, husband."

Nyssa never failed to leave an impression. Despite all the time he had spent with them both, Oliver had not known the depth of the discord that ran between the two sisters. Even during his time at Nanda Parbat, Ra’s had never once so much as alluded to it. It had seemed to take something away from Nyssa though. Oliver wasn’t sure how permanent it was, but there was a lack of the usual coiled tension that she held in her stance. Sara had been the only person who could get Nyssa to unwind in the same way. It was on odd relief to see in her. One Oliver shared, if not for the same reasons.

“All the same, if you need anything, you know where to find me.” Oliver held out a hand to Nyssa.

For a moment, she eyed him curiously, then shook it. “Thank you, husband.”

Oliver drew in a sharp breath, the hint of irritation at Nyssa’s relentless teasing over their marriage didn’t fade the more he heard it. Nyssa clearly knew how it annoyed him, and simply grinned at him. Nyssa turned to the rest of the small group that had gathered in The Bunker. Her eyes flickered over Kara for a moment, and Oliver felt himself tense on instinct as Nyssa sized her up like prey. Then, with the same easy with which she had sized Kara up, Nyssa’s gaze flickered to Alex.

“It is a true tragedy that we could not have met under different circumstances.” Nyssa gave Alex an almost predatory grin and Oliver had to fight down a laugh at the unrestrained outrage on Maggie’s face.

Alex spluttered a little in surprise before finding balance. “You’re an interesting woman, Nyssa.”

“Oh you haven’t the first idea.” Nyssa drawled.

At that Nyssa turned again, gave Oliver a wicked grin, and stepped into the elevator. Once the doors had slid shut, Kara and Lena burst out laughing. Oliver only managed to hold on another second before joining them. Maggie’s face was still bright red and Alex didn’t seem to be faring any better. The couple tried to fix them with looks of fury, but it did nothing to quell their laughter. It took almost a minute for them to calm enough to speak.

“The same goes to you all too,” Oliver said. “I can’t tell you how much what you all did today means to me.”

Kara was there in an instant, curling herself into his side with a one armed hug. Oliver wrapped an arm around his shoulders and returned the embrace.

“Yeah well, that’s what family’s for.” Maggie offered him a smile.

“I don’t know about the rest of you but I could certainly go for a drink.” Lena suggested.

The chorus of agreement from the group was enough to being another smile over Oliver’s lips.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up with you soon,” Oliver paused, and nodded across the room. “Slade and I need to talk.”

Slade had opted to stick around The Bunker for a little while after they returned from Lian Yu, wanting to use the computers to run down some of the leads Oliver had managed to gather on his son. Oliver had been thankful for it. With the immediate danger over, he knew that he and Slade were far overdue a conversation.

“Well I doubt we’ll be in Al’s that long, we’re all running on two days without sleep.” Kara looked up at him from where she was tucked into his side.

“I’ll see you at home then?” Oliver asked.

Kara hummed in agreement before levitating up a few inches to plant a kiss on his lips. Maggie immediately jumped in, making a retching sound, and Oliver flipped her the bird without breaking his lips from Kara’s. When they broke apart, Kara was beaming at him.

“See you soon.”

A little reluctantly, Oliver let her out of his embrace and watched as Kara produced a breach device from the small pouch in her boot. Oliver shook his head, Kara really needed to get a suit with more practical storage. He made a mental note to bring it up with Cisco in the near future. A few moments later, the group had disappeared and the breach snapped shut behind them.

“You look as though you’re about to start floating like your girlfriend, kid.”

Oliver chuckled a little as he turned to face Slade. “She’s good for me,” He smiled before sobering a little. “She’s too good for me.”

“There’s that guilt I was talking about again.” Slade fixed him with a pointed look.

Crossing the rest of the room, Oliver made his way to a stack of crates in one corner. It took him a few moments to find the correct one, but he popped the clasps open and hinged up the lid as soon as he did. Oliver reached in, grabbed the item he’d been looking for and turned back to Slade with it held aloft.

“You really are a sadist.” Slade grimaced a little.

He had a point. Oliver was far from sure himself why he’d kept it. After Slade had turned up to the Queen Mansion over three years before, he had brought with him a bottle of the same rum that he, Sara, and Oliver had shared on the island. After Slade had left, Oliver had grabbed the bottle and taken it with him to The Foundry. At the time he had told himself that it was because he didn’t want any part of Slade lingering in the place he considered his home. But there had been something in him when he had done, a strange sense of hope. That maybe he would be able to drink it one day in celebration. After he had cured Slade, Oliver had thought that he might one day be able to share a glass with his brother-in-arms again.

That day had finally come.

After grabbing two of the glasses that John kept in a draw by the computer bank, Oliver took a seat at the conference table, with Slade opposite him. Oliver poured a sizable measure into each glass then pushed one across the table to Slade.

“Mind telling me what we’re drinking for?”

Oliver chuckled. “I feel like we’ve earned it. Besides, this might be the first time you’ve tasted alcohol in three years, don’t tell me you’re not happy for the excuse.”

Slade grinned, plucked up his glass and drained half of the liquid with ease. His eyes closed for a moment and he let out a satisfied hum.

“That intel you gave me on Joe panned out,” Slade spoke after a few seconds of silence. “I’m headed to Calgary in the morning to chase down a lead.”

“I’m happy for you Slade. I hope you find him.”

“So, what’s the real reason you wanted to talk?” Slade raised an eyebrow.

Oliver scoffed. He should have known Slade would see through his thin veneer of cool.

Where did he begin? There was so much between he and Slade, a lot of history that had been uprooted by the Mirakuru, a hatred born of revenge, a brotherhood lost. The man across the table from Oliver had killed his mother. But had he really? From the moment Slade had begun to show that the Mirakuru had affected his mind on Lian Yu, Sara had told him the Slade that Oliver had known was gone. When Roy had killed an SCPD officer in a Mirakuru induced rage Oliver hadn’t held it against him. Could he really blame Slade for the things he had done? The man sat across from him wasn’t the man who had come to Starling City looking for revenge three years ago. He was the man that had saved Oliver’s life on Lian Yu, the man who had become his brother.

Then there was—

“I want you to know that I don’t hold anything that happened three years ago against you. I know that none of it was really the man I know that you are. But I wanted to—I…” Oliver trailed off, trying to find his centre. Slade sat across from him in silence, waiting. “I never really told you how sorry I am for what happened to Shado.”

There was a pregnant pause in the air before Slade spoke. “It wasn’t your fault. Ivo never would have shot Sara, he still cared for her. He was toying with you.”

At those words almost a decade of guilt and self-hatred dropped from Oliver’s heart. He had forgiven himself, at least in part, for what had happened to Shado, but Slade had always been a mark that he had never been able to let go of. He had known how much Slade cared for Shado, part of him had known even back on the island that Slade would have been better for her. But Oliver had still been too much the man he used to be. He couldn’t let her go. Ever since he had worn the guilt of depriving both Slade and Shado time with a person who could truly have matched the other’s soul. Hearing Slade pass that forgiveness was enough.

The silence between them stretched out. Neither of them quite sure what to say next.

After a while, Slade raised his glass.

“To Shado.”

Oliver did the same.

“To Shado.”

Most of the remaining bottle had been drained before Oliver and Slade decided to take their leave, both men slightly unsteady after the overwhelming strength of the rum. In the course of drinking, Oliver had offered Slade to stay in one of the, admittedly spartan, rooms in The Bunker to sleep in for the night before he headed out to chase down Joe, and he had thankfully agreed. Oliver fumbled in his pockets for a few moments before producing a breach device.

“If you get the time, head to STAR Labs over in Central City,” Oliver began. “Cisco can fit your cell with a chip so that you’ll be able to contact me even if I’m on Earth-38.”

As he said it, Oliver knew he would need to contact Cisco in advance to give him a heads up that Slade would be calling. As far as Barry and the STAR Labs team were aware, Slade was still hostile towards them all. The one and only time Slade had come across Cisco he had tried to kill him, Oliver had no doubts that Cisco wouldn’t have forgotten.

“If you need my help finding Joe, or anything else, just let me know.”

Slade nodded thoughtfully.

“Thank you, Oliver.” Slade reached out a hand as he said it.

A grin tugging at his lips, Oliver grasped Slade’s hand and shook it.

“I know this isn’t entirely accurate, but it’s good to have you back, Slade.”

Slade grinned too. “It’s good to be _back_ , kid.”

Oliver snapped open a breach with a click of the device in his hand. With a final goodbye to Slade he stepped through the gateway, instinctively flinched at the sensation it brought, and stepped out into Kara’s apartment.

She was still waiting up for him. Kara was curled up on the couch, laptop on her knees typing away at some article. There was a look on her face, a particular focus that Oliver only saw on Kara when she was working on an article for CatCo. The look was endlessly endearing to him.

At the new presence, Kara’s attention flickered up to him and the laptop was forgotten on the sofa as Kara quickly walked up to him. Without a word Kara wrapped him in a tight hug that Oliver returned without conscious thought. The toil of the last day crashed down over him. Stopping Chase, saving William, getting a chance to be a father and the fear that it brought. Slade, getting a brother back, being forgiven for a mark on his soul that wasn’t his own doing. Oliver felt what little strength that had kept him going leave his body, helped along by the alcohol induced weariness. Kara took his weight easily, letting out a soft breath and holding him tighter to her.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Kara practically whispered into his ear. “You can let go with me. I’ve got you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slade and Oliver are bros again, yay! I'm endlessly salty that because of some ridiculous 30 second Deathstroke cameo in the DCEU that Manu was never able to play Slade in the Arrowverse again after season 6. He will be back, because Slade Wilson is amazing and this is fanfiction so I can do whatever I want. 
> 
> The next chapter is going to be righting another unforgivable wrong that the Arrowverse dealt us, because in canon Oliver never got to go to Barry's bachelor party. I will be fixing that. So comedy hijinks are en route. 
> 
> As per, this wasn't proofread properly, so let me know if you caught anything that needs fixing. 
> 
> See you all next week!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay with this everyone. I've had a really rough stream of family shit to deal with the last few weeks and it's sapped all my energy from being able to write. I'm back now though, and I'm already a few thousand words into the next chapter. 
> 
> ALSO: I urge everyone to go back and check out Chapter 1 of this story again. It now features a glorious piece of cover art that gives me so much inspiration for writing this.

It was something of an ongoing competition between herself and Oliver, and Kara was far from entirely sure how it had started. Neither of them were prone to sleeping late, not unless the rigmarole of superhero life wore them down to the point where they crashed out. As a strange result it had become a small challenge between them, to see who would wake up first for the day.

For Oliver, it made a lot of sense. He had spent years living in survival mode, always on edge waiting for the next threat to sneak up behind him. Kara didn’t think she would ever be able to truly understand that. Whenever she was just Kara Danvers, she knew she could sleep soundly, there was hardly ever a risk of something sneaking up on her and catching her unawares. Oliver had lived it for five years. After that, he had never been able to truly uncoil himself from that programmed sense of preparedness. So, he would always wake early, his body never allowing itself more sleep than the bare minimum it needed to function at optimum.

His nightmares didn’t help either. The first time he had one while sleeping in her bed Kara had awoken thinking that they were under attack. It didn’t take her long to realise what the reality was. She had so many nightmares of her own when she had first arrived on Earth she recognised it immediately. It had taken over an hour to get Oliver to open up to her about the nightmares once he woke. From what he had told her they were nowhere near as frequent as they had been when he had first returned from Lian Yu. That didn’t stop Kara from worrying. She had seen something in it, a chance to repay the kindness that Alex had shown her when they had been young and she had been plagued with nightmares herself.

When Kara was young, after she first arrived on Earth, she didn’t know how to sleep. She had spent over two decades trapped in a dream-like state in the Phantom Zone and every time she had tried to sleep she found herself back there. A lot of the time, she just pretended that she was asleep so that Alex didn’t worry. Kara would wait until Alex, Eliza, and Jeremiah were all asleep then she’d climb up onto the roof and watch the stars. She had wanted them to be safe, so she watched over the house. With everything that she had seen on Krypton, everything that Kal had told her about his life as Superman on Earth, she had known that there was evil in the world. Kara refused to let it touch her new family.

When she got older, Kara figured out how to sleep again. Alex had helped her a lot, taught her how to control her panic, the anxiety attacks. But then she became Supergirl, and she was face to face with all that evil that had plagued her childhood. So once again she rarely slept because she knew that evil was still out there. It took falling in love for her to get a peaceful night’s sleep. And with love came something she had never experienced. Dreams. Not the trauma induced flashbacks of the Phantom Zone and Krypton’s destruction that had haunted her before. Real dreams. Anywhere from absurdist flashes to _that_ beautiful lie that she never wanted to wake from.

One late night when neither of them had been able to properly sleep, just laying together in bed and silently enjoying the others embrace, Kara had told Oliver as much. She almost shouldn’t have been surprised when he confessed a similar revelation. He had told her that most every night he spent with Kara in his arms was a night where he dreamt again. A night where he didn’t find himself back on the island in his dreams. A night where he would dream of life beyond the war.

Despite the peculiar respite of good dreams, neither of them found themselves of sleeping late.

Whenever Kara was the first to rise, she always took the opportunity to appreciate Oliver as he slept. in his sleep, Oliver seemed to be more calm than he ever was awake. There was none of his usual tense anticipation. No matter what happened in their lives, Oliver always appeared to be ready for the next thing to go wrong. When he slept was one of very few occasions Kara was able to see him without any of his guardedness and pessimism weighing him down. She always took the opportunity to appreciate the sight. Then Oliver would sense her gaze on him, stir to consciousness and pull Kara flush against him to kiss her.

Oliver on the other hand would make for the kitchen whenever he woke first. Maggie had joked on several occasions that she was sure Kara must have been a cop in at least one alternate dimension given her appetite. It was something Oliver embraced all too readily. How he had developed an ability to cook with the talent that Oliver possessed was something that baffled Kara. Whenever someone commented on his cooking ability, Oliver simply brushed it off with a glib _“I spent five years on a deserted island, of course I can cook”_. That answer never satisfied Kara. The skill Oliver had in the kitchen did not come from roasting rabbits over an open flame for five years. Given that he never hesitated to cook enough food to feed a small army just to provide her with breakfast though, Kara never pushed to hard. Kara knew she had it good with Oliver’s talent in the kitchen, she had no intention of risking losing it.

That morning was no notable exception. Kara had awoken with the smell of bacon in her nose and the satisfying pop and crackle of fat bubbling in a frying pan. Almost on instinct Kara levitated herself out of bed, the covers falling in a pile to the floor at her side of the bed. Suspending herself a few centimetres off the ground Kara hovered through into the living space, rounding the corner into the kitchen.

Oliver was stood with his back to her, his attention focused on whatever was in the frying pan in front of him, and totally shirtless. Kara came to a dead halt for a few seconds as she watched the muscles in Oliver’s back and arms flex and ripple as he busied himself preparing food. Almost immediately, Kara felt a warm flush go through her that had very little to do with the heat emanating from the kitchen.

Her thoughts of food forgotten Kara hovered the rest of the way across the room and wrapped her arms around his chest, instinctively raising herself a little higher to match Oliver’s height. At the same time, Kara dipped her head down to plant a lingering kiss on Oliver’s shoulder. There was no sign of surprise in his reaction to her, as it was with every time Kara attempted to sneak up on him Oliver always knew she was coming. Oliver hummed his approval at the gesture and leaned into her.

“Good morning.”

Kara didn’t reply at first, placing a trail of kisses up Oliver’s shoulder and stopping at the top of his collar bone.

“Hmmm it is.”

Without another word Kara continued her actions. Her lips traced up the side of Oliver’s neck and along his jaw until he turned his head to meet her lips with his own. Oliver’s hands forgot the pan in front of him, letting go of the handle and dropping the spatula he had been gripping. Left handed Oliver reached out and cupped the back of Kara’s head, holding her against him as they deepened the kiss. His free hand tangled with Kara’s right that had been stroking idle patterns over the exposed musculature of his chest. Oliver’s fingers danced up the exposed skin of Kara’s arm.

“Kara,” Oliver broke the kiss for a moment as he sucked in a breath. “Your breakfast is going to burn.”

Pulling away from Oliver just an inch, Kara looked across at the stove top. There were a few rashers of bacon sizzling in the pan on the hob, and a wry grin slipped over Kara features. Kara pursed her lips and blew a firm breath towards the pan. Immediately the liquid fat stopped bubbling in the pan and the gas flame flickered out.

“It’s already cold.”

For a brief second Oliver attempted to glare at Kara for spoiling his cooking efforts. Cutting off whatever objection her boyfriend was about to voice Kara dipped her head and caught Oliver’s lips again. Oliver responded without hesitation, matching Kara’s intensity and turning the rest of the way to face her properly. Kara dropped her hands down to Oliver’s sides and lifted him into the air just enough for her to whisk them back towards her bed.

_XXX_

“Stop hogging the mirror.” Kara nudged Oliver out of the space directly in front of the standing mirror with her hip and took his place.

Oliver chuckled at the woman in front of him for a moment before dipping his head down and placing a kiss on the top of her head. Without her levitating Oliver had the better part of a half a foot on Kara and had a clear view of himself in the mirror over the top of her head. There was an element of his old Queen family habits as Oliver checked over his appearance.

Part of him thought that he was overdressing to go to something as simple as Barry’s bachelor party. That said, Cisco had already informed him that they would be heading out to a fairly high class restaurant. Oliver knew he needed to look the part on the off chance the press got wind that Mayor Oliver Queen was out on the town in Central City. He had paired a sharp steel grey waistcoat and matching slacks with a crisp white shirt and shiny black oxfords.

Oliver felt a strange pull of something that wasn’t quite a real memory in the back of his mind for a moment. The last time he had gone to a bachelor party it was some prep that he and Tommy had known via their parents circle. He and Tommy had only been invited along as a way to drum up some press attention of the night. The man that looked back at Oliver from the mirror was a far cry from the one he had been then. As he looked in the mirror, for a brief second, Oliver saw a ghost like flash of his mother standing behind him with a smile on her face.

He bit down hard on the image and refocused his attention on Kara.

“Happy with this one?”

Kara hummed in thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. Sara said we’re doing dinner and drinks with Caitlin, then Frost wants to go clubbing. I don’t know how to dress for both.”

In the time it had taken for Oliver to dress, Kara had supersped her way through a dozen outfits. While Oliver had voiced his approval to all of them – as far as he had seen Kara had never worn anything that _didn’t_ look good on her – Kara hadn’t been happy with any of them. Her most recent choice was a knee-length navy blue dress, with a modest neckline. The fabric hung off Kara in a flattering way without drawing obvious attention and the lack of sleeves showed off the definition across her shoulders and arms.

“This one looks perfect to me.” Oliver offered, placing his hands on her shoulders and dipping his head down to press a kiss against Kara’s cheek.

“You’re sure?” Kara met his eyes in the reflection of the mirror. “What about my suit? I—”

Oliver held up one hand to cut her off. “Jax and Professor Stein are coving Central City for the night, and J’onn and Alex can handle things here. You don’t need to worry.”

Of course, that wasn’t the whole truth. Oliver himself had a spare suit stashed at STAR Labs thanks to Cisco just in case of emergencies. With the wear and tear that his armour went through on a regular basis Oliver knew full well it was good to have backups. As well as the one on display in The Bunker, Oliver had three additional suits ready for use. One in STAR Labs, one in a well disguised crate on the roof of City Hall, and another at the DEO. Given that Kara’s suit contained Kryptonian fibres that bordered on indestructible it wasn’t feasible to build proper backups. Though that was a task Oliver intended to get Cisco and Lena to work on as soon as possible.

Kara nodded, then turned to face Oliver. Left-handed she ran a trail down Oliver’s arm, down from his shoulder before tangling their fingers together. Her other moved to cup his cheek before Kara levitated to match his height and kissed him.

“Remind me to get you to break this out for date night,” Kara smiled as she broke the kiss. “You scrub up well, Mr Queen.”

Oliver let out a soft chuckle. “And you always look immaculate, Miss Zor-El.”

“Charmer.” Kara beamed at him teasingly.

“Only for you.”

No more than twenty minutes later. Oliver and Kara were stood in the STAR Labs cortex, waiting for Barry’s team to finish their daily routine. Given that Barry and Joe were going to be kept occupied by CCPD business for most of the day, Oliver had elected to meet Cisco and Harry at STAR Labs to make things easier. Were Barry and Joe still busy, the trio could head off to the restaurant Cisco had chosen early. If not they could head to Joe’s for an early drink before moving onto the steak dinner.

Kara on the other hand was banking on meeting all the other women at STAR Labs. Sara would be being dropped off there by the Waverider, it was the most convenient point for both Kara and Jesse to drop in on, and Caitlin spent most of her time there anyway. Which left only Felicity to meet them there.

Felicity remained a source of slight unease. Despite his best intentions, Oliver knew that things between himself and Felicity had become tense after his first stint on Earth-38, and even more so after he and Kara had started dating. The whole time they had been battling Adrian Chase, he and Felicity had been working their way back towards each other, patching up the breaks in their relationship. Then Oliver had run off to Earth-38 and had fallen for Kara hard after two weeks. Felicity hadn’t fully moved past it. She held no bitterness towards himself or for Kara, Oliver was sure of that. Though sometimes he saw something behind her eyes when he spoke about Kara, or when she saw them together, like she was seeing things that could have been.

The lingering guilt Oliver felt over Billy Malone’s death didn’t help the situation at all.

Cisco, Harry, and Jesse, were waiting for them as soon as they stepped through the breach into the cortex. As soon as the breach snapped shut Cisco bounded across to them and wrapped Kara in a hug. For a brief second Cisco moved to give Oliver the same embrace, almost on instinct, but Oliver shut him down with a pointed glare. Cisco’s eyes went wide for a moment and he swallowed hard before retreating back towards the desk. Oliver had to fight down a small chuckle at the reaction.

“Supergirl. Queen.” Harry offered them both a nod.

“Harry.” Oliver returned the gesture.

A second later Kara supersped herself across the room as Caitlin stepped out of her lab. The chuckle Oliver had suppressed at Cisco’s fear broke out into a smile as he watched Kara and Caitlin hurry into an excited babble about the events of the night. For a few moments, Oliver stood and watched, a smile on his lips.

“You know, I’m still not used to seeing that look on your face,” A voice sounded out, and Oliver couldn’t supress a chuckle. “Though really anything is better than the brooding.”

Oliver turned to face the entryway to the cortex. “Nice to see you too, Sara.”

“Hi, Ollie.” Sara crossed the rest of the room in a few long strides and gave him a one armed hug. “I heard about everything with William,” Sara continued as she broke away. “You should have called.”

“You have your own responsibilities, Sara.” He offered by way of explanation.

Sara raised an eyebrow. “You mean you didn’t want me and Nyssa to make things difficult?”

Oliver’s lack of reply was enough for her to know the answer. Sometimes Oliver forgot that Sara knew him better than most people. Unlike Slade and Kara, Sara had known Oliver from before the island. Thea didn’t really remember who he had bene before, not properly. Despite his recklessness back then, Oliver had done a lot to keep Thea from getting too close to seeing him as anything other than her big brother who would braid her hair and watch Disney films whenever she asked. Sara had seen it all and seen the man he had turned into since. It was no surprise she had been able to read his motives so well.

“How is she?” Sara asked after a long silence.

“You know how difficult Nyssa is to read,” Oliver gave her a half-smile. “But I think she misses you. After you died, Laurel managed to bring out something in her. She was getting Nyssa to go to Big Belly, dipping her fries in milkshakes. She’s not had anyone around to make her feel human for a long time.”

There had been a strange series of changes in Nyssa over the time Oliver had known her. The bitter, distant assassin had mostly receded in her, though it had done nothing to dull her lethality. There was something much more human in Nyssa, thanks in large to Laurel’s desire to stay close to the woman who had loved her sister. When Laurel had brought Sara back from the dead, Nyssa had lost a lot of the trust she had once had with Laurel. After Laurel’s death and the disbanding of The League of Assassins, Nyssa had all but disappeared. It had taken a lot of work for Oliver to keep track of her in the aftermath. The work had proved worth it, even if after meeting her Kara seemed to be hell bent on adopting Nyssa into her ragtag group of family.

“Kara keeps nagging me to invite her to game night,” Oliver continued. “But I’m having a hard time seeing Nyssa playing Twister.” Sara laughed at that. “Maybe you should both come sometime.”

A pensive look slipped over Sara at the thought and Oliver knew better than to press the issue any further. He had no doubts at all that Kara would do exactly that later in the night once the group had enough alcohol in them.

Kara had packed a few flasks of Kryptonian-proof alcohol in the small clutch she had thrown over one shoulder. Oliver had never seen Kara carry anything like it before, she usually opted for oversized handbags so she could carry around all her various notepads and laptop. The clutch had been buried in a back corner of her room, under a not insubstantial layer of dust. It had been the only way Kara had thought to be able to carry around alcohol that would have any effect on her, given that Central City had no bars that could cater to her metabolism. While his sample size was admittedly limited – Oliver had only seen Kara get drunk on two occasions and neither of those were excessive – he had little doubt that she would interrogate Sara over her relationship with Nyssa once there was enough liquor in them all.

“Keep an eye on her tonight,” Oliver nodded at Kara. “Kara doesn’t drink much. Who knows what will happen with her powers if she cuts loose tonight.”

Sara looked at him and laughed. “God you’re disgusting when you’re being all adorable and protective.” At Oliver’s unamused look Sara rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep an eye on your girl, don’t worry.”

_XXX_

Oliver couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a meal in an upmarket restaurant and truly enjoyed himself. With Kara, food on date night was usually cooked by Oliver himself, and beyond that the general demand of their lifestyle meant most other meals were takeout. There had been a handful of functions and events that Oliver had been made to attend as mayor, but those were usually so stifling that no matter the quality of the food he couldn’t enjoy himself. Sharing a meal with Barry and the rest of the STAR Labs men was a surprisingly enjoyable experience.

At first, Oliver had his reservations. Joe West for one had expressed his concerns for the way The Arrow operated. Though after the business with Roy Bivolo, Oliver seemed to have gained a great deal of credibility with him. Outside of that, the idea of drinking and celebrating with a group of men who he hardly had anything approaching a working friendship with – with the notable exception of Barry – had been a slightly daunting prospect. His first instinct had been to find an excuse to duck out of the event but Kara hadn’t given him much of a choice in the matter.

Despite it all, the evening had a remarkable start. The restaurant Cisco had reserved seats at for them had proven to be incredibly priced but more than worth the money. And thanks to a waitress who had clearly recognised him and a bright smile on his part, Oliver had managed to swing them a few free bottle of champagne for “Mayor Queen’s party”. Cisco had taken a little offense at the implication, but the men had laughed him down and taken the free alcohol gladly.

To Oliver’s surprise, the whole dinner had been spent with the men trading stories about Barry’s escapades, laughing at his expense – which Barry took in his stride with a smile. Between Oliver, Joe, Cisco, and Harry, they had gotten through three bottles of champagne over the course of the meal. No soon had they finished and paid for the meal, Oliver insisted on taking the celebrations back to Joe’s house so that he could gift Barry with an early wedding present.

“It comes from a planet with a name that I can’t pronounce without some sort of extra throat muscle,” Oliver said as he handed the bottle across to Barry. “But it works on Kara so either it’ll get you drunk or melt a hole in your intestines. Honestly I’m curious to find out which.”

There was a long stretch of silence where Barry’s eyes went comically wide and he started at Oliver, trying to work out if he was being serious. Over Barry’s shoulder, Oliver could see both Harry and Joe trying poorly to supress smiles and Cisco grinning openly. Unable to maintain a straight face at Barry’s confusion, Oliver let out the laugh he had been holding back. The other men joined in without pause and Oliver clapped Barry on the shoulder.

“I had Maggie shop around for something that would work on you.” He explained, graciously taking the glass of scotch that Joe handed to him over Barry’s shoulder. 

Barry weighed the bottle up in one hand still seeming a little mistrustful of Oliver. Then, he must have decided to go with it after all and smiled.

“Thanks man.”

Oliver returned the smile and hooked an arm around Barry’s shoulders, guiding him over to the couch. Once him and Barry were sat, Oliver grabbed one of the empty glasses from the table. Beside him Barry popped the cork from the bottle, sniffed suspiciously at the neck, and grimaced.

“You’re sure this is safe?”

With a roll of his eyes, Oliver pushed the glass into Barry’s hands. “You can drink it willingly, or I tranq you and put the stuff into you with an IV. Your call.”

That earned another round of laughter from the rest of the men. Begrudgingly, Barry poured out a few fingers into the glass, corked the bottle again and placed it down on the floor. With regret already etched onto his face Barry raised the glass to his lips and drew a small sip. There was a few long beats of silence as they all looked to see Barry’s response. Then, he hummed appreciatively and took a larger mouthful.

“Tastes like Malibu.”

There was a small chorus of cheers throughout the room at that, then Cisco dropped onto the sofa on Barry’s other side. In a second, he had the bottle uncorked and was pouring more into Barry’s glass.

“Now by my counting you’re five glasses behind the rest of us,” Cisco stopped pouring as the liquid reached the rim of the glass. “All in favour of Barry downing that?”

With grins on their faces, all the men in the room besides Barry raised a hand.

“Guys! Come on!” Barry protested.

None of them backed down, each of them fixed Barry with a pointed looked that told him that he wasn’t getting out of it.

Then, Cisco began in a hushed tone—

“We like to drink with Barry…”

Oliver found himself swamped with a series of memories of his and Tommy’s heyday. Drinking with Laurel, McKenna, Sara. Chanting each other into consuming far more alcohol than they reasonably should have done. A smile split his lips as he joined in with Cisco, increasing the volume as he did.

“… _’cause Barry is our mate,_ ”

Barry’s reluctance seemed to fade more into amusement as Harry joined in.

“… _and when we drink with Barry, he gets it down in…_ ”

Joe joined them in the count, all four men laughing through the numbers as Barry knocked back the glass.

“ _…Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!”_

The resounding chorus of cheers could have woken the dead.

_XXX_

“A toast. To the future Mrs. Allen.”

Four champagne flutes chinked together in the middle of the table at Felicity’s toast.

“Although your life with Barry may be fast-paced, I hope you guys take the time to enjoy the special moments.”

From the slight twitch at the corner of Caitlin’s lips, Kara could only assume that Frost had made a derisive comment at the sentiment of the whole dinner. Kara had been warned well in advance that as soon as she took over for the night Frost would deride Caitlin’s wardrobe and insist on going somewhere to get recklessly drunk. How the both of them had agreed to marrying Barry was beyond Kara. Caitlin and Frost couldn’t have been two more different people, their affection for Barry seemed to be the only thing they shared.

Over the course of the dinner, Caitlin had already forewarned them that Frost would do everything in her power to ditch the veil and _bride-to-be_ sash that the girls had forced onto her. Between Sara’s ninja skills and Kara’s superpowers, they were pretty sure they could stop Frost from abandoning the adornments.

The dinner had been a mostly pleasant experience. Aside from catastrophic, save the world type incidents, Kara hadn’t spent a huge amount of time with the other women. By far and away Caitlin was the one she had spent the most time with and even that was mostly down to Barry. She had learnt more about Sara through Oliver’s vague hints at his own past – mostly his recounting of how Thea had been brainwashed into killing Sara and her subsequent resurrection – than she had by actually conversing with the other woman. Jesse was a total mystery to her. Before arriving at STAR Labs earlier that night Kara had never met the younger girl. All she had heard was that Jesse was Harry’s daughter, though personality wise the two couldn’t have been more different.

Felicity was different. When Kara had first visited Earth-1 during the Dominator invasion, Felicity had seemed warm, bubbly, beyond energetic. While they hadn’t talked a great amount, Felicity had still seemed welcoming to her. Since her arrival in Central City that evening, Felicity had hardly spoken to Kara unless it couldn’t be avoided.

In a way, Kara understood it. When she had asked Oliver to help her search for Jeremiah she hadn’t expected to fall for him. More so hadn’t known that before he came to Earth-38, he and Felicity had been patching up their relationship. Oliver had explained it to her much later, when Kara had questioned why Felicity had been taken by Adrian Chase. A small part of her felt a measure of guilt over it. Kara knew full well that it was irrational to feel as though she had stolen Oliver from Felicity, because that was far from how things had happened. But the looks Felicity kept casting her out of the corner of her eye seemed to confirm that was how the other woman saw the situation.

“Felicity will get over it,” Sara spoke to her in a hushed voice as the group made their way into the city centre later that evening. “Her and Ollie had a complicated relationship, but I think both of them knew that it would never work out in the long run.”

Kara cast a glance to the three women walking side-by-side ahead of them. “I just don’t it want to ruin the mood.”

“It won’t. Felicity might carry a grudge but she’s not the vindictive type.”

It seemed reasonable to take Sara at her word. She had known Felicity for a lot longer than Kara had and if Sara was half as good as Oliver made her sound then Kara had no reason to doubt her ability to read people. A comfortable silence fell over them as they walked, and Kara reached down into her clutch to produce one of the flasks stored there. She hadn’t been able to drink all through the dinner, so the other four women were a good way ahead of her on the way to getting drunk. Jesse had opted to adorn one of STAR Labs power dampeners for the night, making it easy for her to ger drunk. Kara didn’t have that luxury. Popping open the clasp, Kara took a long gulp from the flask and shivered a little as the alcohol burnt on its way down.

“How many of those do you have?” Sara questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Kara snapped the lid back into place and tucked the metal flask into her clutch. “Four.”

“And Oliver said you didn’t know how to drink.” Sara chuckled.

“He’s not wrong,” Kara smiled. “Maggie just loaded me up with enough that I won’t have to worry about running out.”

Sara nodded in agreement at the idea. Then, a thought seemed to strike her.

“How are you planning on sneaking those into the club?”

That, Kara hadn’t considered. For some reason, the idea hasn’t so much as crossed her mind when she had picked the clutch out from under a pile of unused clothes and bags from a dust covered corner of her room.

“Give them here.” Sara instructed, but continued when Kara gave her a questioning look. “Professional assassin, remember? I’ve got three knives and a bo-staff hidden on me already that the bouncers won’t find.”

A little astonished by the admission, Kara flickered her gaze over Sara. Even X-Ray vision enhanced, it took her a few seconds to find all of Sara’s hidden weapons. When she brought her gaze back up to Sara’s face, the assassin was grinning wickedly.

“Told you.”

With that, Kara fished the various flasks from her clutch and handed them one by one over to Sara. A minute later and the flasks her safely hidden under Sara’s jacket and dress.

“I have no idea how you cope living with X-Ray vision,” Sara began as she tucked the last flask away. “I would _not_ be able to use that responsibly.”

Kara bit her lip for a moment then spoke. “Honestly, I’m usually using it whenever Oliver’s got clothes on.”

There was a beat of silence, then Sara threw her head back laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, I haven't properly proofed this so feel free to let me know if you spotted any mistakes.
> 
> Additional Note: I’m pulling Ralph Dibny from the story for the time being. This really doesn’t have anything to do with the CW dropping Hartley Swayer, in fact this has been my plan since day 1. I was never a huge fan of Ralph in The Flash, and in fact I’ve wanted to bring Eel O’Brian into this universe since the beginning. The CW gave Ralph a lot of O’Brian’s powers – i.e. his ability to shapeshift and his increased invulnerability, and even personality wise he feels more like Eel O’Brian than the comic version of Ralph Dibny. It’s mostly down to personal preference, I’ve always loved Plastic Man as a character. So, Ralph is out for now, and Eel O’Brian will be turning up in the future…maybe. If I find a good way to introduce him, I’m still working on that.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right people I'm back! 
> 
> In my defence I had a good reason for this break. More or less since the last update to this story I've been working a fairly vicious factory job to drum up the money for me to be able to continue in higher education. As of now, I'm done with that job and back in school. Good news is I only have classes one day a week, which should leave me plenty of time to write. I'm expecting to get a chapter per fortnight done, but that's just a rough estimate. 
> 
> To make up for it this one is a little longer than usual. Normally, I’d have broken this up into two chapters to pad out my upload schedule but you guys deserve a longer chapter after my two months off. 
> 
> Anyhow, as per usual this chapter wasn't beta-read, so if you pick up on any mistakes please let me know.

“Alright, I’m out, you guys are mean.”

Cisco threw his cards haphazardly into the middle of the table as he spoke. A grin on his lips, Oliver leant back in his chair. With Cisco out of the game he was left playing against Harry and Joe. Why Barry had suggested they play a few hands of poker when he was so tragically inept at the game was beyond Oliver, but he wasn’t complaining.

The last time Oliver had played a proper hand of poker he had been twenty-two, a few months before he got on _The Gambit_. He and Tommy had taken off to Vegas on a whim during a break from their respective degree courses because Tommy had a desire to play. Oliver had always been the better poker player out of the two of them, he was much better at hiding his tells. Tommy on the other hand had worn every single card on his sleeve with his total inability to mask how he felt. Maybe part of it had been down to how well Oliver had known him but even so it seemed obvious to most other people too. Over that weekend in Vegas, Tommy had blown nearly ten-thousand dollars’ worth of his father’s money on failed gambits at the tables. Whereas Oliver had turned a tidy enough profit that it guaranteed him a few _months_ of reckless partying without touching his trust fund. He could vividly remember how proud he had been of the endeavour.

Apparently, Oliver had lost none of his edge in the near decade since his last hand of poker. Though his success was undoubtedly made greater by Barry’s utter lack of understanding at the rules of the game and Cisco’s inability to bluff.

Harry had proved to be an exceptional player. It was something Oliver had little doubt of when they sat down to play. The man had an IQ somewhere north of three hundred so it was of no surprise to Oliver had he would be good. That said, Harry’s flaw was his caution. He was lacking any sort of reckless edge, and that gave Oliver good ground to work with.

Joe had proven to be the outlier. Throughout the game Joe had hardly spoken two words other than when he gloated while sweeping up his winnings. Despite Oliver’s best attempts he hadn’t been able to pin down any of Joe’s tells, his betting habits, anything about the way he played. He was just inconsistent enough to keep Oliver on the backstep. And he hated it.

“Joe?” Oliver turned his attention to the man in question.

Harry and Barry and folded out of the hand almost immediately. Cisco had been forced out when Joe and Oliver kept pushing the pot up higher, not wanting to lose any more money than he already had.

“I’ll call.” Joe threw an additional five dollar note onto the pile in the middle of the table.

For a moment, Oliver eyed the other man, trying to read him for some sign of what he was sitting on and drew a slow mouthful of smoke from the cigar balanced between two fingers. Cisco had provided the cigars, claiming that it wasn’t a proper bachelor party without them. Despite his better angels, Oliver had plucked one from the proffered box when poker had been suggested. He hadn’t so much as been in the same room as a lit cigarette since Lian Yu, and even before then it wasn’t a habit he induced in often. Waking up the next day with a mouthful of what tasted akin to sewage had been something he had hated even in his reckless party days. Becoming a vigilante meant that he needed to be in top form, smoking wasn’t a habit that went well with that. One cigar for Barry’s bachelor party was an evil he was will to allow though.

Across the table, Harry picked up the deck and moved to put down the next card. Oliver had been beyond assured of himself when he had been dealt a paired queen and ten, and had forced himself to quell a grin at the coincidence of it. The flop had come down looking good, with two kings and a ten. The next card came out a jack.

When Harry looked up expectantly at him, Oliver grinned. Another king, a queen, or an ace would be perfect. It all looked good for him.

“All in.”

One handed, Oliver pushed the small pile of bills that had accrued in front of him into the middle of the table. Then he looked up a Joe with a smirk.

“Alright I’ll call.” Joe copied Oliver’s movement.

Harry placed down the last card and Oliver bit back a grin. Another Queen.

“Alright show ‘em.” Harry addressed the two men.

Oliver flipped his cards. In the seat beside him, Joe smirked.

“Sorry, Oliver.”

The cards Joe turned over made Oliver bite out a string of Russian curses that no man around the table understood.

“Pocket aces. You sly, bastard.” Oliver offered Joe his hand even as he said it.

With a laugh, Joe shook the offered hand. “You’re a helluva player, Queen. When you’ve got your dignity back let me know and I’ll humiliate you again.”

Oliver didn’t try to supress his laugh at that. “I’ll keep the offer in mind.”

“Alright,” Barry clapped his hands as he sprung to his feet, clearly unsteady as he did. “Poker was an awful idea. Who’s up for karaoke?”

Oliver’s instinct was to shut down the idea before it could even begin to see like a viable option to the rest of the group. Kara had been trying to bully him into joining in for karaoke night at Al’s for months and he had refused every time. He would join them at the bar, and applaud, and shower Kara with praise for her performances every time, but he _never_ sang. He also never got drunk enough to think that it was a good idea. With the amount of alcohol he had gotten through between dinner and the poker game, Oliver wasn’t sure it would end well.

Before he could voice any semblance of resistance, Cisco and Joe had voiced their agreement, and Barry was already putting his coat on.

In the back of Oliver’s mind a voice that sounded suspiciously like Tommy laughed at him.

_XXX_

Kara had set foot in precisely one club in her life on Earth. The only reason she had agreed that time was because Oliver was along for the ride, and Maggie and Alex her much easier to deal with drunk with someone at her side. Of course, at the time she had been slightly in denial that it was because it was _Oliver_ not just anyone. That time, she had been mostly sober, not wanting to embarrass herself too much in front of Oliver. Kara had seen Alex get recklessly drunk enough times to know to avoid that possibility.

At Sara’s insistence though, Kara had cleaned out almost half of one of the flasks before they set foot through the door to the club Frost had selected. It was certainly a different experience on the other side of sobriety. The noise was almost painful. It had taken Kara by surprise just how loud it was between the music and the chattering of the occupants. She hadn’t expected her powers to go into overdrive quite so quickly. It took her little over a minute to dial down the noise.

After that, the whole thing had proved to be more enjoyable than Kara had expected. Sara had subtlety handed Kara back each of her flasks as the other women ordered several rounds of shots which were thrown back far quicker than Kara was able to keep pace with. Sat beside her at the table they had managed to wrangle, Sara had put away two shots for every one that the other women managed. At the incredulous looks she had gotten, Sara simply shrugged and knocked back another.

They had danced too, and Kara hadn’t realised how much fun it was. Dancing, along with singing, had been a hobby that Kara had picked up thanks to her time on Earth. But it had always been a little less…reckless before. Usually it was still goofy, and not very coordinated, but most often set to songs from her favourite musicals and involved dragging Alex around a room against her will. Dancing in a club could not have been more different. Between the bass heavy dance music and the liberating feeling of alcohol, the experience was nothing like her usual.

Sara had dragged her up to the floor alongside Jesse while Frost and Felicity somehow got themselves into a drinking competition with two other women they’d met at the bar. For a brief moment, Kara had been concerned about how tightly packed in they were with the other patrons of the club. Sara and Jesse had danced circles around her, doing their best to keep enough distance between Kara and the other people on the dancefloor to prevent them from being knocked out by a stray limb. Despite her powers, spending time on the dancefloor had her just as sweaty as the other two women and twenty minutes later they were slouched over the bar in need of refreshment.

“So why aren’t you an Nyssa dating?!” Kara half-shouted over the pounding music.

Sara made some complicated gestures at the barman that must have translated to a drinks order in some way that Kara didn’t understand, then turned to face her.

“It’s complicated.” Sara huffed in a volume that would have gone unheard without superhearing.

Kara laughed and prodded at Sara’s shoulder with one finger. “That’s what I kept telling myself about Oliver. I was in denial.”

“It’s not that.” Sara deflected.

Not believing her for a second, Kara just fixed her with a look that told the other woman that she wasn’t backing down. With a sigh, Sara threw back one of the shots she had ordered.

“So maybe it is,” Sara gritted her teeth. “Nyssa told me to leave. After I got resurrected she told me to leave her and find something that didn’t tie me down to my past.” 

Kara waited a few moments to see if Sara would say anything further. When she didn’t, Kara nudged into her with one shoulder.

“Trying to pretend your past didn’t happen is just as bad as living in it. You should go get your girl.”

Sara looked across at Kara with a curious expression on her face that the Kryptonian couldn’t quite place. “I had no idea that you were this…wise. Last year you kinda came across all naïve cheerleader.”

For a brief moment Kara felt a sting at the words, she heard Cat Grant in a memory telling her she needed to be more wise to the ways of the world. There was a lot of truth in Sara’s words though, her time with Oliver had certainly proved that to her. Oliver had opened her eyes to a lot of things that she might not have looked at twice without him. At the beginning, there had been something _clean_ about being Supergirl. She had been fighting against aliens whose sole goal had been to enslave the world, there wasn’t much grey in it. Half a year fighting Cadmus with Oliver, half of that again they were dating, and the world seemed like a different place entirely.

“I am different,” Kara shrugged, digging into her clutch to grab one of the flasks and throwing back another mouthful. The burn of the alcohol had started to feel pleasant. “I’m looking at things differently now.”

Sara chuckled. “Oliver’s in your head, huh?”

“He’s insistent,” Kara laughed. “I resented it at first but now I’m glad he’s as stubborn as he is.”

“Yeah being with Oliver is like that.” Sara rolled her eyes.

Over the noise of the club and the alcohol slugging around her system, it took Kara a few moments to put together what Sara had said.

“You and Oliver…”

For a brief moment, Sara’s eyes went wide. “Ah, shit,” She cringed. “You didn’t know about that huh?” At Kara’s shake of head, Sara continued. “You couldn’t really call it dating. After the island, everything else, we were both pretty damaged. I think we just latched onto something familiar.”

“He never said anything.” Kara’s eyes turned to the bar top, not looking at Sara.

Beside her, the assassin threw back the rest of the shots she had ordered and grimaced.

“Oliver and I go back a long time,” Sara began, stepping closer to Kara so that she didn’t have to shout. “We’ve known each other as far back as I can remember. I was on _The Gambit_ with him when it went down.”

That was news to Kara. Oliver talked so little about his time on Lian Yu and she never wanted to push him for more than he was willing to offer. Of the information about himself that he had offered up to her, most of it had been about his time after he returned to Star City. Sara had come up once or twice, but mostly when he talked about Laurel. Then after they met Nyssa he had explained everything about The League of Assassins and Sara death. Not once in all of that had he mentioned that they were involved, and certainly not that she had been on the boat with him.

“Ollie’s got good reasons for keeping secrets,” Sara continued. “Nothing good happened on the island and even before that…well he’s embarrassed of who he used to be. Give him time, he’ll tell you everything when he’s ready.”

_XXX_

Even more drunk than was entirely advisable, Barry had an obnoxiously good singing voice. For reasons that he couldn’t discern, that annoyed Oliver out of all proportion. The man could barely stand up straight and he still had the singing voice of a consummate professional, how it was possible was something Oliver couldn’t begin to comprehend. Super-serum powered soldiers, meta-humans, aliens, he’d gotten used to them all in some way, but Barry putting on a good show despite being recklessly wasted? That seemed to be a step too far.

Joe, who had drunk significantly less than Barry but was by no means sober, had put on a few sterling renditions himself. On the three occasions Joe had been up on the stage since their arrival in the karaoke bar he had sung his heart out to bluesy jazz, and each one had been entertainingly imperfect. In fact, their group had slightly monopolised the karaoke machine since their arrival. Cisco, Barry, and Joe, had all been up multiple times, and even Harry had been goaded into giving them a rendition of an Elvis classic.

Despite their best attempts, they hadn’t been able to tempt Oliver onto the stage. No matter the promises or threats, Oliver had simply laughed, shaken his head, and assured them he was far more afraid of Kara than he was of them.

Oliver had spent the whole time they had been in the bar protecting their booth, and making his way through the selection of rather impressive scotch whiskys on offer. At that moment, he was sharing the booth with Harry as they watched the other three putting on a rendition of Midnight Train to Georgia. Joe was at the mic, crooning the main line with a half-full glass of beer in one hand, while Barry and Cisco shared the second mic singing backup for him. Oliver hadn’t been able to resist pulling his phone out and recording most of the performance. Despite mostly manging to stay in the right pitch, each of the trio were slightly out of time with the others, and the occasional slurring of their words made the whole thing laughably brilliant.

That said, Oliver had also recorded most of the performances. In part because he knew there was a good chance none of them would remember it come the morning and he always enjoyed embarrassing Barry. The larger part was that he was using it as an excuse to text Kara.

She had been thrilled to see the various performances, and had sent a flurry of videos back of the bachelorette party watching the performances and laughing. It hadn’t taken long before the two of them laughing over Barry embarrassing himself had turned into them flirting. Even after three months of their relationship Kara still turned bright red almost every time Oliver had whispered something suggestive to her or Maggie made an offhand comment about their sex life (which happened far more often than Oliver was comfortable with). Kara had gained an edge of her own though. While she didn’t share Oliver’s almost relaxed attitude towards it, Kara had started to manage to keep up with his flirtatious comments from time to time. Apparently, a few drinks in and Kara was as shameless a flirt as Oliver himself had once been.

The latest message, and accompanying suggestive emojis, had Oliver staring at his phone in stupefied amazement. So much so, that he didn’t notice when Barry had dropped down into the booth beside him.

“Kinda hard to believe a few months dating you turned the Girl of Steel into a horny teenager.” Barry snorted into his drink.

Oliver’s attention snapped up from his phone and he fixed Barry with the best glare his alcohol soaked muscles could muster. Either getting drunk was making Barry more confident or it was making Oliver’s facial muscles fail him, but he was clearly losing his ability to intimidate. Barry’s expression never made it out of avuncular amusement.

“You used to be scared of me.” Oliver’s thoughts made it out of his mouth.

Barry laughed again. “Still am, just can’t tell which of the three of you I should be afraid of.”

The ridiculousness of it brought a laugh out of Oliver. By that point, Cisco and Joe had returned to the booth, brining with them a fresh round of drinks and a tray of shot glasses. Ignoring his look of reluctance, Joe placed one of the shot glasses in front of Oliver with a pointed look that told him he didn’t really have much choice in the matter.

Barry looked at the tray of drinks, almost disappointed that there wasn’t one for him. 

“Did you really think I’d let you down like that, man?” Cisco grinned across at him, handing over a small vial of a clear liquid.

Barry took it with a beaming grin and the other four men picked up their glasses.

“To Barry!” They chorused and threw back the shots.

Whatever the drink was, tequila by the taste, burnt as it sunk down Oliver’s throat. Even with the amount he had already drank, he wasn’t used to putting away shots like he was still twenty-two.

 _Come on, man._ Tommy Merlyn laughed somewhere in the back of his mind. _This used to be a Tuesday for us._

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut hard for a moment, pushing down the flicker that bordered on memory. When he opened them again, both Harry and Joe were giving him curious looks from across the table. Barry and Cisco were totally oblivious.

“I haven’t had tequila in five years.” Oliver offered by way of explanation.

It wasn’t a lie, and there was a strange sense of… _something_ in it. By way of Lian Yu, Oliver had gone five years without any measure of drinking in any way that mattered. The first time he had drunk after his return to Star City had been a shot of tequila handed to him on stage at his welcome home party by Tommy. He hadn’t touched tequila since that night, a little over five years again.

In all his years, even with the experiences he had gone through on Lian Yu and after, even with everything he hadn’t learnt from Ra’s al Ghul and John Constantine, Oliver had never found himself really believing in the afterlife. In that moment though, thinking on the baffling coincidence and Tommy’s ethereal voice in the back of his mind, he did. Oliver could almost picture Tommy looking down on him from whatever afterlife there might have been, a grin on his lips, and flipping him the bird.

The image brought a fully formed grin onto his lips.

Something then seemed to grab Joe’s attention across the room. Oliver followed the direction he was looking in and saw the emcee beckoning him back to the stage. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that he was going back to sing, hardly anyone else in the bar was going up to the stage after the performances their group were putting on. The rest of the men around the table had clued onto it as well. Without much hesitation they were all getting up.

“You too, Ollie.” Barry insisted, tugging petulantly at his sleeve.

“No, no way.” Oliver tried to shut him down.

Joe had gone straight up to the stage, leaving the others to wrangle Oliver.

“I do _not_ sing.” Oliver argued again.

For the first time, Harry stepped up to coax him. “One song, Queen. For Barry.”

The pleading eyes the speedster was throwing at him had nothing on Kara’s puppy dog expression, and Barry’s drunkenness wasn’t helping his case at all. Then, Oliver heard the beginning of the song kick in. With a single chord played on a piano Oliver found himself remembering a night over a decade ago. Arm in arm with Tommy, Mckenna, Laurel, and Sara, belting their hearts out at some party he and Tommy had thrown.

The image of Tommy in his mind balked with laughter again.

 _Of course_ , it was Billy Joel. Oliver couldn’t count the number of times he and Tommy had slipped into a drunk rendition of Piano Man.

“Alright fine.”

_XXX_

Kara had held onto a vague sense of annoyance at Oliver holding back on his past with Sara for all of ten minutes before giving up on it. A liberally flowing stream of shots on Sara’s part and almost a full flask of the liquor Maggie had provided her with on Kara’s and they had shared a surprising amount with each other. It had been a little difficult for her to take in at first, and the haze in her mind thanks to how much she had drunk didn’t help at all, but the more Sara talked the more Kara understood.

Sara had started at the beginning. Little by little she had explained her history with Oliver. It had helped put a lot of pieces in place, especially Oliver’s complete avoidance of mentioning any aspect of his relationship with Sara.

From everything Oliver had been through, the way he had been just before and at the beginning of their relationship, Kara had no doubt that he suffered from some kind of post-traumatic stress. Kara had suffered through it herself, the guilt that came from surviving when everyone you cared about died. His reluctance to share the less than stellar details of his life made sense. Oliver had already lost so many of the people he loved because of senseless violence and others again because they couldn’t come to terms with how the damage in his past affected him. That she had realised when she found out about William. Oliver had almost reflexively assumed that Kara would take the revelation badly, that she would hold his decision to keep William a secret against him. When she later found out about what had happened between him and Felicity that made sense too. Felicity had been the last woman Oliver had tried to let in and, from what Kara had understood, Felicity pushed too hard. Her own history still as fresh in her mind as it had been the day she arrived on Earth, Kara knew there was no way to push Oliver to let her in, he had to do it when he felt safe.

Which explained why he never told her about Sara. Admitting that he cheated on his then-girlfriend with her sister probably didn’t seem like a safe thing to do.

Then again, Kara supposed, when would there have been a good time to bring that up? In the near four months they had been together they hadn’t had a lot of time to discuss the finer details of their tragic pasts. At first they had been consumed with hunting down Cadmus, and even as the search went cold the general rigours of superhero life rarely left them a lot of time to themselves. In those fleeting moments that they managed to spend together without the weight of the universe pressing down on them, they always choose to bask in the good things.

In the end, Kara didn’t even think they needed to have a conversation about it. The Oliver who had that affair wasn’t the Oliver she had fallen in love with. He had changed. The man he had become, _that_ was what mattered.

“…but the man can cook!” Sara burst out. Or in, into Kara’s skull as she had been thinking. Apparently the other woman had carried on talking while she was away in her own mind. “Where the hell he picked that up I have no idea. Infinite realities, right? I got money there’s one out there Ollie’s some big resta…restaour…uh, chef guy.”

Kara, completely lost at what she had been thinking about moments before, bust out laughing.

“He always said he learnt on the island.”

“Bull. Shit.” Sara laughed. “No way did Yao Fei or Slade teach him that. I think he got Raisa to teach him after he got back and he’s just too embarrassed to admit it.”

“Raisa? That’s the…the…” Kara rolled a sound in her mouth trying to draw the word out.

“Kinda did everything,” Sara shrugged. “She worked for Ollie’s family as long as I’ve known them. She was a helluva woman, best damn cook I’ve found in any time zone.”

“Alright, enough…” Kara scrambled around in her brain again, trying to find that word Alex always used on her. “Deflecting. Tell me about Nyssa.”

That was all the prompting it took. The two of them had gotten significantly more drunk than the rest of the group in their conversation on Oliver, and apparently when drunk Sara wanted to talk about the woman she adored.

Most of what she came out with was incoherent, senseless fawning over Nyssa. About the particular shade of brown her eyes were, how it felt like dancing when Sara and Nyssa sparred, and a lot more boasting over how good Nyssa was in bed than Kara was entirely comfortable with hearing.

“…It’s like…” Sara paused. “Have you ever dated someone where you knew it was going to be so much work but it’s worth it because of how amazing they are?”

Kara did her best to imitate Lena’s signature eyebrow raise. “You remember who my boyfriend is, right?”

“That,” Sara bopped Kara on the shoulder with one finger. “Is an excellent point.”

The two of them descended into laughter again, completely unprompted and uncontrollable. Despite everything she had been told about hangovers, Kara decided that she _really_ enjoyed getting drunk with friends. She would have to try it out properly with Alex and Maggie.

Something dimly tugged on Kara’s senses for a moment, something that she knew she should have been able to pick up on if her super-senses hadn’t been dulled with alcohol. She was about to turn to look at the room to figure out what it was when Sara caught it first. In an instant, Sara seemed to reflexively sober up and her attention snapped across the room. Kara took a moment to follow her gaze but when she did she saw Frost stood at the bar, face remarkably red with irritation as she glared at the man stood talking to her.

With little more than a glance at each other in confirmation, Kara and Sara got to their feet and made their way across the dancefloor to get to Frost. Clearly Felicity and Jesse had noticed too, and joined up with them halfway across the floor.

“…my place, baby.”

Kara only caught the end of what the painfully annoying dudebro said to Frost, but it was beyond obvious what the rest of the conversation had been like if his appearance and Frost’s face were anything to go by. Kara could tell from the look on her face alone that Frost was only just able to resist her urge to put a hole in the dudebro’s chest.

“And I said I’m not interested.” Frost bit out. Clearly Caitlin was shouting at her not to do anything rash.

“Don’t be like that, baby, I saw you looking.” The man grinned and attempted to flex his muscles.

That, Kara almost had to laugh at. After near four months sharing a bed with Oliver Queen the ‘muscles’ the dudebro flexed barely even registered to her.

“Hey!” Sara stepped up around Frost. “The lady said back off.”

The man scoffed at Sara’s upfront aggression. “What’s your problem, skank? Jealous you’re not getting any?”

“Oh that’s it I’m hurting him.” Sara bared her teeth.

Kara didn’t even have time to get a word in before the fists started flying.

_XXX_

Consciousness hit Oliver in the head like a brick levied in a street fight. 

He flinched awake from the impact and rolled over on the sofa, trying to crawl back into sleep, but the movement brought with it a rolling wave of nausea. Oliver stopped the vomit in its tracks with an effort of will and propped himself up on one elbow, blinking. There was daylight boring a blurry hole through the gloom above his head through a crack in the curtains and a dream scuttling out of the back of his head half seen…

_Do you see, Oliver? Do you see?_

_Adrian?_

Oliver lost it to the sound of a pained groan from beside him. Twisting his head, he saw Cisco laying on the floor, half covered by a blanket and clutching his head.

“Kill me, please.” He whined.

 _Check functionality_. Some ingrained part of Oliver hissed at him, some whisper of his training that insisted on kicking itself to life despite his hangover addled mind. _It’s not injury you’re concerned with, it’s damage. Pain you can either use or shut down. Wounds only matter if they cause structural damage. Don’t worry about the blood; you can get more. Don’t worry about wounds; check functionality._

Oliver’s head felt as though someone was sawing it apart from the inside. Waves of feverish sweat spread down through him, apparently from a point at the back of his scalp. The floor of his stomach had climbed and was nestling somewhere near the base of his throat. His lungs hurt in some obscure, misted way. It felt as though he had been hit with a taser, and not one with a particularly low voltage.

Oliver worked himself cautiously into a sitting position on the edge of the sofa and noticed for the first time that he had fallen asleep more or less in his clothes.

Reaching out, Oliver grabbed the duffle bag that he had left discarded under the coffee table the night before. It was still unzipped, a casual pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt, clearly intended as sleepwear, left on top. A deeper trawl though the pockets of it finally turned up a stick of ARGUS-issue painkillers. He snapped one loose of the foil wrap, held it between finger and thumb for a moment, then added a second. Conditioned reflex took control as Oliver dropped them both into his mouth and swallowed hard, grimacing.

The relief was almost instant. A soft red rush through his head, wiping the pain away in smudges of pink and grey. ARGUS issue, nothing but the best for Waller’s division. Oliver smirked to himself, stoned on the endorphin boost, and got to his feet.

_Feeling pretty damn functional now._

Oliver quickly traded out the formal slacks and button down shirt with a pair of loose fitting jeans and t-shirt pulled from his duffle. Feeling the relief from the ARGUS-issue pills and more casual clothes Oliver felt secure enough to move. He lightly prodded Cisco with one foot to get his attention, then dropped the pills onto his chest.

“Take two, if you’re up to swallowing anything. I’m gonna go make some coffee.”

With that he made his way into the kitchen.

_Look at yourself, Oliver. You’re getting slow. You’re only keeping yourself together with chemicals._

That didn’t sound like the insistence of his training, or the ghostly voice of Tommy that had joined him the night before, it might have been Adrian, creeping out from the dark recesses of his mind. Oliver pushed the observation to the back of his mind and focused on coffee.

A few hours later they met up with the women of the bachelorette party for brunch, the idea being that most of them would be up to eating by midday. Aside from Harry, none of the other men had felt up to throwing down painkillers. As a result, Joe, Cisco, and Barry were all groaning with pain the whole way to the restaurant they had chosen for brunch.

A little unsurprisingly, the women had beaten them there.

Kara was up from her seat the moment she saw Oliver walk into the room and the sight of her beaming face fought back the rising hangover that was encroaching on him in the wake of the painkillers leaving his system. She met him halfway to the table and Oliver gladly sagged into the hug Kara offered him before pulling back to catch her lips in a kiss.

“Get a room!” A voice called from over Kara’s shoulder, and Oliver looked up to see Sara grinning at him.

Rolling his eyes almost on instinct at Sara, Oliver kept his attention on Kara.

“Hey.” He smiled at her.

“Hi,” Kara beamed. “You seem remarkably alive given the videos I was seeing of you guys last night.”

Oliver grinned. “Nothing military painkillers and a litre of coffee couldn’t sort out. You?”

“Apparently no matter what I drink, once my powers kick in, no hangover. Pretty neat.” Kara looped her arm with Oliver’s and began to lead him to the table.

“Of course, just one more thing for us mere mortals to envy about the mighty Girl of Steel.” Oliver teased. 

As Oliver took a seat at the table with the rest of the group, Kara dropping into the one on his left, he couldn’t stop habit from picking up something. Attention pulled from something Barry had started saying, Oliver noted the light red dusting across Sara’s knuckles. Of course. Of course Sara had gotten into a fight.

“Who did you kill?” Oliver asked, gaze pointedly fixed on Sara.

A wicked grin crossed her lips. “No one, thanks to your girl, but I got pretty close.” Sara turned her attention to Barry. “Some asshole was hitting on our bride-to-be, and I wouldn’t be much of a maid of honour if I didn’t defend her.”

“You hit him because he called you a skank.” Caitlin countered, clearly Frost chiming up in her mind.

Sara’s grin turned even more devious. “That may or may not be true, and I’d like any further questions to be referred through my solicitor.”

The table stumbled into a round of laughter at that, as Sara leant back in her chair grinning like a shark. After a while the group settled down and began to make their way through the menus in front of them, trying to decide what would be best to settle the raging hangovers.

The silence was finally broken by Felicity.

“Oliver, you might want to see this.” She said as she held her phone out to him.

With a little hesitation, Oliver took it and glanced at the screen. Displayed on it was an article from the _Star City Inquirer_ which featured a picture of Oliver with his arms slung around Barry and Cisco, with Joe and Harry flanking them on either side. Just a glance and Oliver knew it was taken in the karaoke bar they had gone to the night before. Grimacing, Oliver scrolled to read what they had put along with the picture.

_MAYOR HANDSOME BACK TO OLD HABITS_

_Oliver Queen was spotted on the Central City party scene last night. The former billionaire playboy was a regular on the gossip columns ten years ago before his yacht_ ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ _was sunk at sea. After his return to Star City five years ago, Queen opened hit club Verdant, but seemed to swear off his life on the party circuit following his family’s involvement in Malcom Merlyn’s Undertaking that levelled The Glades._

_Queen, pictured here with Joe West and Barry Allen of the SCPD, Cisco Ramon of STAR Labs, and another as yet unidentified man took to the bars of Central City last night…_

Oliver gave up reading at that point. He had been in enough gossip rags over the years for him to not need to carry on with it. Biting down on the urge to break the limbs of the person who had sold that photo to the Inquirer, Oliver turned his attention to Felicity.

“Any way to kill this?”

She shook her head. “Even if we took down the Inquisitor article a dozen other places got that picture too. Besides, it doesn’t seem like that bad a thing.” Before Oliver could even muster up his signature glare, Felicity held up a placating hand. “Check your phone.”

Begrudgingly, Oliver did. There was a flurry of texts from both Thea and Quentin about the various articles. As it turned out most of the papers had gotten the point that he had been out to celebrate Barry’s bachelor party, and that he had been in respectable company. Not only that, but both Thea and Quentin told him that it had been _good_ for his approval ratings.

“Wait,” Kara grabbed Oliver’s attention. She was fixing him with a glare she must have learnt from him. “You did karaoke with Barry?”

Oliver swallowed hard.

“He didn’t have much choice.” Barry chimed in.

“There were some threats about fabricating an embezzlement scheme and arresting him,” Harry lied convincingly. “West seemed willing to go through with it.”

When Kara turned her attention to him, Joe simply shrugged and kept his attention on the menu. For a few long moments Kara eyed the men at the table, trying to decide if she believed them or not.

“I’m going to pay for this in some subtle way down the line, right?” Oliver asked after the silence had stretched too long.

Kara patted him on the shoulder. “It won’t be that subtle.” 

Across the table, Sara barked out another laugh, and it didn’t take long for the rest of the group to join in. Interrupting the laughter, a waiter arrived.

“Drinks for the table?”

“Bloody Mary, double the vodka.” Oliver and Sara answered at the exact same time.

The two of them laughed again, Sara reached and outstretched fist across the table. Against his better instincts, Oliver reciprocated the gesture.

Kara fixed them both with a disgusted look.

“Who hurt you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I need a little help from you guys. On Chapter One of this story, there's a piece of cover art. When I look at this fic on my phone, I can see said cover art, but when I look on my laptop I just get a bit of text saying 'Cover Art'. Could you all check the first chapter of this story, then let me know in the comments if you can see the cover art, and what platform you're viewing it on (mobile, laptop, PC, whatever). It'd be a big help to know if that's just me or an issue with this story for everyone. 
> 
> As usual, here's your reminder to follow me on Twitter @JRW9699 for the occasional update and whatever random thoughts are on my mind.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone ask for 4k words of cute domestic shit? No? Here it is anyway. 
> 
> As per, this has been proofread only by me, so feel free to point out any mistakes.

Familiarity came slowly to Oliver. Certain parts of his life from before The Island, different habits and quirks of his personality, they were all still tightly packed away in his mind. Occasionally, certain ones of them crawled out. Sometimes because he needed to use them for cover, much as he had done when he had first returned to Starling City. Other times, the people around him brought them out. He recalled watching reality tv with Thea one midnight not long after his return. She had babbled away about the goings on of the show, much as she had done about the Disney movies they had watched together when Thea was eight and Oliver was sit braiding her hair. Over time he became used to some of his favourite foods again, allowed himself to enjoy the indulgence of a perfectly cooked steak, or the guilty pleasure of a one dollar tub of ice cream.

It took a long time to reaccustom himself to a lot of it.

With Kara, those things came quicker. Though, Oliver supposed, it wasn’t so much familiarity with her. In almost every relationship he had been involved in both pre and post Lian Yu, Oliver would have been hard pressed to identify more healthy than unhealthy aspects. He had repeatedly cheated on Laurel before Lian Yu, lied to her about being ready to move in together, eventually gotten Samantha pregnant. After The Island there had been Helena, a relationship built purely on Oliver’s own selfish desire to prove to himself that he wasn’t beyond redemption. Then McKenna, who he had never been able to offer any semblance of truth to and eventually lead to her fleeing the city. Sara was the closest thing even approaching functional, but the whole time they had been together he had been in denial about his own feelings for Felicity at the same time as Sara had been trying to bury her own longing for Nyssa. Things with Felicity had never been straight forward. As much as Oliver had wanted to open up to her, Felicity had always pushed too hard, expected too much too quickly and it had only caused him to draw further into himself. There had been some benefits to it though, their time in Ivy Town especially had been a level of normality that Oliver longed for again in some moments. 

His relationship with Kara was different on levels that Oliver couldn’t fully express. For one, he had never felt the kind of pressure he had felt with most women after The Island. Whenever Oliver had wanted to talk and open up about his past Kara was there, waiting patiently for him to work though in his own time. Even when she could tell he was holding back, he never felt as though she resented it, in a lot of ways she understood. More so than that, they had both found some normality in their relationship. It wasn’t the level of domestic bliss that Ivy Town had been, they would still suit up and battle all sorts of things together. But, in the moments between, they were normal. They found time for dates, had game nights with Kara’s mismatched circle of found family, they even managed a few times to get Oliver’s team over to National City for a night out. There were quiet lulls in evenings where they would both collapse on the couch, Kara stretched out and typing away on her laptop, her feet in his lap, Oliver holding up a book with one hand and the other absently massaging her feet. They found quiet afternoons where Oliver would spend hours stood in the kitchen, putting together insane high calorie recipes to try and account for Kara’s metabolism. Long, lazy Sunday mornings where Oliver would have to step over the hungover blobs of Alex and Maggie sprawled out on the floor of the living room and laugh with Kara at the misery the duo always brought on themselves after a night of drinking.

Kara had even managed to meet William in a slightly more relaxed environment.

Oliver hadn’t managed to see much of his son in the weeks following Chase’s kidnapping scheme, Samantha had wanted them both to settle into life in Star City before adding Oliver into the mix on a more regular basis. As much as he understood the sentiment, it still itched at him that he wasn’t able to see his son more often. The only significant stretch Oliver had spent with him was when Samantha was still job hunting in Star City and had asked him to watch William for the day. With no hesitation at all, Oliver had delegated his responsibilities at City Hall to Thea and Quentin and spent the whole day at his apartment with William. The vast majority of the day had been filled with William asking him all sorts of questions about being The Green Arrow and all the superheroes that he had met. After very little persuasion on William’s part, Oliver had promised that he would try and get The Flash’s autograph for him, and made a mental note to ask Barry about it at the wedding.

Once she had managed to find a break at CatCo., Kara had joined them for lunch. Much as William was fascinated with all things Green Arrow, he had been even more in awe of Supergirl. It didn’t surprise Oliver at all that Kara was amazing with him. She answered all of his questions with a beaming smile. Even when he asked about her home planet, questions that usually would have stalled Kara in her tracks, she explained everything with a patience and understanding that floored Oliver. Of course, William had gotten her to give him a full demonstration of her powers, including bench pressing Oliver himself. The suggestion of the idea had irritated him to no end but he couldn’t find it in him to say no to Kara _and_ William giving him puppy dog eyes.

That night, after Samantha had returned to her new home from job hunting and Oliver had headed back to Kara’s apartment, Samantha had called him. Apparently, William had been full of praises for both Oliver and Kara and couldn’t wait to know when they would be spending time with him next. For a moment, Oliver had been worried that he had overstepped a line by asking Kara to join them for lunch without clearing it with Samantha first, but she had assured him that it wasn’t a problem and that they both would be more than welcome to spend more time with William once they were properly settled in.

Being The Green Arrow, was every bit as intense and punishing as it had been from the moment Oliver first hooded up on his return to Starling City. But, with Kara, William, his strange new cobbled together family of friends from home and Kara’s misfits on Earth-38, being Oliver Queen mattered just as much to him as the mission.

Which lead to moments in his life that left Oliver questioning quite how he ended up there.

The latest of those was as he served up an artery blocking, caloric monstrosity for Kara’s lunch.

“Ladies and gentleman, I present, the Supergirl bagel.”

Oliver turned away from the stove and placed the overflowing plate down on the kitchen island. Maggie and Alex both fixed him with horrified stares, but Kara was looking as though she might just inhale the thing in one go.

“What…is it?” Alex asked with a slightly nervous glance at her sister.

“That,” Oliver grinned, proud and disturbed in equal measure by his latest creation. “Is a full packet of the highest fat content bacon that can be legally sold in the United States, five sausage patties, wafer chicken slices, three fried eggs, cheese singles, and hash browns, all crammed into a cream cheese covered poppy seed bagel.”

For a moment, Oliver suffered the almost hallucinatory conviction that Kara was about to start salivating.

“That’s not a bagel, that’s a crime against nature.” Maggie grimaced and sipped at her coffee.

“It’s amazing,” Kara hummed excitedly, wrangling the thing into her hands while trying not to spill any of its contents. With a great effort, she practically unhinged her jaw and tore a bite out of it. There was a long moment of silence as she chewed, then she swallowed with a frankly pornographic moan of pleasure. “This is the second most amazing thing I’ve ever eaten.” At Oliver’s slightly indignant look she clarified. “Those potstickers you made the other week totally win out.”

The small wave of pride that settled through Oliver didn’t go unnoticed by Maggie. The detective threw him a _‘seriously?’_ look, questioning how he could be, in any way, proud of creating a meal that would probably have given a normal human heart failure.

Barry had once told him that he needed to consume roughly ten thousand calories per day to maintain peak physical condition while using his powers. With Kara, the number was likely a lot higher. Despite him asking, Alex didn’t have an exact number to give him, since Kara’s calorie intake largely depended on which powers she used and how long she used them for. After a little time discussing the thesis with both Alex and Lena they had concluded that a power like flight, which was largely a passive process, would take less energy than something like Kara’s heat vision, which required a high energy transfer. Despite all of that, Alex had told them that even when Kara had been refraining from using her powers before becoming Supergirl she had still been a blackhole for food.

That had been the main reason for Oliver avoiding cooking gourmet class meals for himself and Kara when he had the time. As much as he knew she would appreciate the food, the time and effort that went into producing high quality, low quantity food was hardly worth it when Kara would need to order takeout immediately after to make up the calories. Instead, Oliver strived to create calorific monstrosities like the bagel Kara was gnawing her way though. That latest invention had clocked in just around three-and-a-half thousand calories according to Oliver’s rough calculations.

Or, as had apparently been Kara’s favourite, making potstickers. On the afternoon he had decided to try and duplicate the savoury dumpling from Kara’s favourite takeaway place, Oliver had prepared near three hundred of the small parcels and steamed them in batches of twenty while Kara inhaled them the moment they were ready. It had been an incredibly endearing process, and the pure glee on Kara’s face as she made her way through the food had been worth the two hours prep work it had taken.

Of all the small things and the big in their relationship, cooking for Kara was one of the things that Oliver found a pure sense of peace and happiness in doing.

“I…” Alex was staring at her sister in horrified amazement again. “I don’t understand how you’re actually making that fit in your mouth.”

Before Oliver had the chance to shut her up Maggie leapt after it like a heat-seeker.

“Not the first time Little Danvers has had that particular struggle around something of Queenie’s.”

As soon as the words left Maggie’s lips, Kara choked around a mouthful of the bagel. Immediately, Kara dropped the remaining bagel back onto her plate and clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from spitting out the food indignantly. Alex, for her part, grimaced and glared at her girlfriend. Despite the overwhelming urge Oliver had to reach across the table and clip Maggie around the back of the head, Alex did it for him first.

“Can you stop with the innuendo, that’s my sister you’re talking about.” Alex bit out.

Maggie cackled. “Babe, that isn’t innuendo. What you said, that’s innuendo. What I said was just overtly sexual.”

“You know one of these days I’m going to make good on my promise to put an arrow in you.” Oliver glared at her.

“Please, we all know that Kara is the only person around here you’re penetrating with your…arrow.” Maggie winked at him.

Kara, who had finally managed to swallow the mouthful of bagel around her embarrassment, let out a bright, flustered _eek_. Gleeful with her success in embarrassing the whole room, Maggie patted Kara on the shoulder.

“It’s okay, I’m pretty sure you’re old enough now that your sister knows you’re getting laid.”

Before anyone could rise to Maggie’s bait, Oliver turned his attention to Alex.

“Please let me hit her.”

“I’m all for equality,” Alex shrugged. “Go ahead.”

Maggie turned her attention from Kara to point a scowl at Oliver.

“Don’t even think about it.” Maggie narrowed her eyes.

Oliver faked an innocent shrug.

_XXX_

Something Oliver had become accustomed to over his years since Lian Yu was that, for reasons he couldn’t fully understand, the general principles of reality seemed to serve to throw a wrench into his life whenever is was going well.

Both Star City and National City had been going through a lull in criminal activity. For near a week they hadn’t come up against anything more involved than the basics; a few high profile robberies, a metahuman attack, and one case of stolen alien weaponry. It had been nothing they couldn’t handle with just a few careful moves and be done again in time to get in a drink at Al’s before closing.

Which was why Oliver shouldn’t have been surprised when Quentin rang him to call him back to City Hall before Kara had even managed to finish the monster bagel he had built.

If it wasn’t the criminals of Star City trying to ruin his personal life, it was the members of his own administration. Quentin had ushered him back to his desk and brought him up to date with Councilwoman Pollard’s latest attempt to slip some backhanded anti-vigilante legislation into the Star City charter. 

It wasn’t anything new to him, not even close. Despite all the compromises he had come to with Emily Pollard over the near two years he had been in office, they had never been able to find an appropriate middle ground on vigilantes. Everything he, or Quentin, or Thea, had managed to come up with to attempt to tone down her hatred of vigilantes, or offer compromise on her suggested legislation, had all been shot down. She wasn’t the only member of the city council who wanted reform against vigilantes, but she was by far the most vocal of them.

Carefully, and quietly, Oliver had been swaying the more borderline members of the council to his side. A number of them he had been able to outright convince that vigilantes did more good than harm for the city, and more still he had been able to win over with the various programs he was rolling out for the SCPD and ACU.

One upside to the downfall of Prometheus and the subsequent quiet spell of criminal activity in Star City was that the general public seemed to support The Green Arrow and his team. Quentin and Thea had been continually running opinion polls to keep them all appraised of the mood of the public, and there had been a steady increase in vigilante support in the six months since Prometheus had been taken down in the eyes of the public.

Those numbers might have changed a little if the people had known that Chase had been broken out of prison by his allies. But thanks to Chase’s twisted idea of vengeance and exacting his final plan on Lian Yu, no one outside of Oliver’s circle of allies knew any different.

“There’s always the nuclear option.” Quentin suggested, looking up from the papers he had been going over.

Oliver dragged his attention away from his computer screen, coloured spots flickering in his vision for a few moments. Thea looked equally curiously at Quentin.

“What’s the nuclear option?” She asked.

“We let Pollard start to push this bill through the council,” Quentin saw Oliver moving to object and pressed on before he could. “And when she brings it up for vote, you invoke chapter nine of the city charter.”

“I have no idea what that is.” Oliver admitted. He had been mayor two years but learning the city charter had never fallen on his list of priorities.

Quentin handed over a slip of paper that detailed the full breakdown, but before Oliver could read it he condensed the information. “In short, converts the bill into a city wide referendum. Means the people decide if it passes and not the council.”

“Will that work?” Thea asked.

Quentin shrugged. “Last set of opinion polls came in with about fifty percent in favour of the Green Arrow. So long as we can sway more of the undecideds onto our side of the camp than Pollard can I think we can do it.”

It seemed solid enough. Oliver’s attention flickered back to his computer as he pulled up the numbers from the last set of polling. The breakdown did seem to be in their favour. Fifty-one percent in favour, forty-two against, seven undecided. Even allowing for a little error it seemed to look as though the people of Star City would vote down the bill. If they won, it would stop Pollard from pushing another anti-vigilante bill for the foreseeable, and maybe even Pollard would lose enough personal support to lose her place on the city council in the next set of elections. All they had to do was ensure that the city stayed quiet until then.

“Alright, lets get it in motion,” Oliver turned back to Quentin and Thea. “Test the waters in the council, see who we’re going to be campaigning against other than Pollard,” He paused for a moment, and glanced down at his watch. It was almost midnight. “Tomorrow, we’ll get a better start on this if we’ve actually had some sleep.”

Quentin was packed up and heading out the door before Oliver had even finished closing down his computer. The long nights always weighed more heavily on Quentin than they did on Oliver or Thea. Even if Quentin’s time as a cop had given him more than a few sleepless nights, he hadn’t been conditioned to deal with it in extremes the same way as Oliver and Thea.

“Heading back to Kara’s?” Thea asked as she slung a messenger bag over her shoulders.

Oliver nodded. “She’s supposed to be doing girls night with Alex and Maggie so they’ll probably all still be hogging the couch watching musicals.”

“Musicals?” Thea cocked an eyebrow. “Alex didn’t really strike me as a musical theatre type.”

“She isn’t,” A grin tugged at the corner of Oliver’s lips. “But by this point in the evening her and Maggie will be tipsy enough to give into Kara pouting and agreed to watch one.”

Thea rolled her eyes at him. “You say that like Kara doesn’t have you wrapped around her little finger.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t, big brother,” Thea patted him condescendingly on the arm. “Sure you don’t.”

Without giving him time to reply, Thea turned on her heel and headed for the doors.

“Night, Speedy.”

“G’night, Ollie.”

Once he heard the doors to the elevator ping shut, Oliver walked up to the master lighting switches built into the wall of his office, killed the lights on his floor, and pulled a breach device from his jacket. A moment later, the swirling blue gateway fizzled into life in the middle of his office, and he stepped through into Kara’s apartment.

Just as he had expected, Alex and Maggie were curled up into each other on one of the sofas, hardly paying any attention to the tv and stealing kisses from each other every time they were sure Kara wasn’t paying them any mind. Kara was giving her rapt attention to Gene Kelly and mouthing along with every word said on screen.

She hardly even noticed Oliver arrive, but he only found her obsession endearing.

“Hey.” Oliver said softly, crossing over to the sofa that Kara was sat crossed legged on and stooping down to kiss her cheek.

“Hi.” Kara lit up at the contact, and turned to peck a kiss on his lips before turning her attention back to the tv.

Unable to keep the fond smile off his face, Oliver slipped the tie from around his neck, tossed it and his suit jacket over the back of the couch and settled down next to Kara. On months of habit, Oliver curled one arm around Kara’s shoulder and she sunk back against him. With his free hand, Oliver undid the top few buttons on his shirt and relaxed. Alex and Maggie hadn’t so much as acknowledged his arrival, too busy tucked into each other, whispering and laying languid kisses.

“You know those two haven’t actually heard a word of the film, right?” Oliver whispered into Kara’s ear, free hand idly playing with the tendrils of her hair.

Kara hummed her acknowledgment and shifted until she found a more comfortable way to lay back against his chest.

“I could start juggling knives and they wouldn’t pay any mind.” Oliver smiled, voice still low.

Oliver’s free hand brushed Kara’s hair away from her neck and started dancing fingertips up and down her spine. With one flickered glance over to Alex and Maggie to confirm that they were, in fact, totally oblivious, Oliver dipped his head down and pressed a line of kisses onto the skin of Kara’s shoulder that her loose sweatshirt exposed.

“Shame they’re here until the film ends.” Oliver whispered, then pressed another kiss just beneath Kara’s ear.

Kara melted even further back against him, then tipped her head back so she could look at him.

“Oliver Queen, you are going to be the death of me.”

A wicked grin crossed his lips. “Kara Zor-El, you’ve not even seen me trying yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know this chapter doesn't really feel like it goes anywhere but I wanted to spend a bit of time just showing the quiet moments. I know the last two bachelor/bachelorette party chapters did that, but Oliver and Kara hardly spent any time together. I felt the need to do some more domestic, relaxed stuff here to counterpoint some of the things happening in the later chapters.   
> The anti-vigilante legislation stuff mentioned here is more or less verbatim what happened in Arrow 6x03, but I wanted to get that established just as a background to something that might be happening in a sequel for this fic that I'm still storyboarding. 
> 
> Also, I did sit at my desk for like half hour inventing that bagel, and by my estimate the calories come out at 3,359 and honestly, I'd still eat it. 
> 
> Here's your usual reminder to follow me over on Twitter @JRW9699


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well my finished draft of this chapter ended up being over 10K, so I've decided to split it up into two parts. Just to make it a bit more digestible. The next part still needs some proofing and it'll probably be out in about a week. 
> 
> After that, I'm planning on pressing pause on this story for a little while. My muse has currently got me stuck on a particular idea, and writing this took a lot more effort than useful. I'm planning on fully completing my other story 'If I Had A Heart' before I go further here. I've already got two chapters posted, and another two more or less finished. The whole thing is only 8 overall, so it shouldn't take more than until the end of the month to finish.   
> With that in mind, would you all prefer me to post the next chapter of this story as soon as I'm done proofing it (1-5 days) or wait a while so that you've not got as huge a gap between chapters? If I post it as soon as it's done, it's looking like a month tops before the next posting, or I could wait 2 weeks, then post it. Then there'd be another 2 weeks before the next one. It's up to you. Let me know in the comments.

“We’ve gotta talk.”

Oliver didn’t know why it still surprised him. Ever since he had started dating Kara, and her circle had fully decided to adopt him as one of their own, all semblance of him having a private life had more or less vanished. After the tenth time it happened, Oliver stopped keeping track of how often Kara’s – his too, he had to keep reminding himself – friends dropped in at his office for seemingly no reason at all. Usefully it was Kara, showing up to drag him away when she had decided he had spent too long at the office, and more than a few occasions Lena had dropped by, curious to learn about his reality.

Maggie was the most common culprit outside of Kara herself. The first few times she just pulled out her badge and flashed her dimples at the desk clerk at City Hall and was let in without question. On the third occasion she showed up, Oliver relented and told the desk clerk to add her to his list of approved visitors. It had raised a curious eyebrow from the young woman, and Oliver had briefly worried that maybe she thought Maggie was a call girl. That fear had been dissuaded when Maggie had very loudly and publicly announced that she was, in fact, a lesbian, and just an old friend of Oliver’s from college who liked to drop in and annoy him from time to time. Which was an accurate description of most of the times Maggie showed up at his office. Almost every occasion she had simply been bored with a slow day at work and had decided to irritate Oliver since Alex was unavailable. Despite his protests, Oliver didn’t much mind the company. Maggie wasn’t a wholly destructive force when she turned up and had actually given up a few helpful insights on some of the issues he had been working on. On top of that Maggie was an endless stream of witticisms and dark humour that broke up the monotony of Oliver’s work day.

From the look in her eyes as she shoved through the opaque doors into his office, it wasn’t going to be one of those sort of days. Just a glance over her told Oliver everything he needed to know. For a moment, he worried that something might have happened to Kara but if that had been the case Maggie would probably have breached straight into his office without a care.

Maggie flopped down into one of the two chairs that sat opposite his desk and lapsed into silence. Oliver stayed quiet for a few moments, waiting for her to gather her thoughts.

“I need some advice.”

That phrase alone made him nervous. Maggie had asked for his input on a handful of cases she had worked with the NCPD, when the threat level hadn’t been enough for the D.E.O. to step in but too much for the standard police response. Then though, Maggie had never asked for advice as such. She had shown him the case file and baited his curiosity to get him to help, or on one occasion Oliver had just happened to have been getting lunch with her when a call came over the wires. The way Maggie nervously rubbed her hands together, the outright admission she needed help, it was personal. With her wedding little over two months away, Oliver could guess what it was about: Alex.

“Alex wants kids,” Maggie continued after another few seconds of silence. “Like she _really_ wants kids. And me…I mean I can’t. My dad was a Class-A piece of shit, and my mom – she just sat back and let him be. All kids are doomed to become their parents right? I can’t pass all that damage onto a kid.”

So, not exactly about Alex.

Back on Lian Yu, after he had taken down Chase, Alex and Maggie had been left to keep an eye on William until Oliver had woken up. While he had never asked either woman what it was they had said to William, Oliver had no doubts that they had been brilliant with him. The fact that William had been so willing to accept him despite knowing that Oliver had lied to him and put his life at risk, told him for certain that Alex and Maggie must have talked with him. More than that, William had told him how much he had liked both of them when Oliver had spent time with him a few weeks later. Maybe it had only been because Alex was there too, jolting her into action, or maybe it was seeing William as distressed as he must have been at first. Whatever the reason, Maggie had been good with him.

“You that you and Alex can’t exactly…” Oliver gestured vaguely at Maggie with one hand and pumped his eyebrows.

“God of course. Here I am pouring my guts out and you’re being an asshole.” Maggie huffed.

Oliver held up a hand. “My point is this shit isn’t genetic, Maggie. If we were all destined to become our parents, I’d be cheating on Kara with my secretary and blowing up the poor for kicks,” That wasn’t exactly true, but the lingering self-deprecation in Oliver’s mind spat the words up to him anyway. “You were great with William, he said so, you really left an impression on him,” Oliver didn’t miss Maggie’s nervous swallow at his words but he benched the thought. “You’re clearly good with kids.”

Maggie stared down at her hands for a moment. “How’d you know you were ready, with William?”

The laugh that skipped through Oliver’s lips was one he couldn’t stop. “Jesus I didn’t. I was twenty and cheating on my girlfriend when I got Samantha pregnant, I was an idiot. When Samantha told me she’d lost the kid I was relieved, I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world. Then the island happened and when I finally met William I…it was like even if everything I’d done as The Green Arrow was meaningless and dark, William was this pure thing. Maybe the one wholly good thing I’d ever done. And I knew I needed to be in his life, ready or not.”

“Alex is _so_ ready,” Maggie said. “She’s got all these maternal instincts and I’m just…numb about it.”

“Then Alex is rare,” Oliver offered. “Most people don’t get that stuff built in, I definitely didn’t. Look, Maggie, you and Alex need to talk about this, I mean really talk. All I can tell you for sure is that with me, all it took was seeing William for the first time and I knew I wanted to be his dad. I love Kara, more than just about anything else, but if it came to it I’d put a Kryptonite bullet in her heart to keep William safe,” For the first time since she’d stepped into his office, Maggie cracked a smile. “If it helps, you’d probably be a helluva mom.”

Maggie’s smile grew a fraction. “God, you’re such a sap.”

Oliver chuckled fondly. Maggie wasn’t built all that differently to himself. When things got too emotional, Oliver closed himself down to stop dealing with it, Maggie made a wisecrack to distract herself as much as anyone else.

The moment a thin silence returned between them, Maggie’s phone started buzzing in her pocket. She pulled it out, read over whatever information was on the screen, then looked back up to Oliver with worry chiselled into her features.

“What is it?” Oliver asked.

“Trouble, it’s…it’s bad. Can you come with?”

Oliver looked down at the notepad that sat on the corner of his desk. He had managed to tick off most of his workload for the day. Despite Quentin always telling him to take his work slower, Oliver always aimed to have at least eighty-percent of it cleared by lunch, just in case something went wrong in the city that needed The Green Arrow. He hadn’t quite managed that much, but there wasn’t anything else on the list that couldn’t either be delayed, or covered by Thea and Quentin.

“Yeah, gimme five and we’ll go.”

With that, Oliver dashed through into Quentin’s office to give him a heads up, then fired off texts to the team to let them know he’d be offworld for a while. With that, he headed back to his office and the breach device kept in his desk drawer.

_XXX_

Of all Kara’s circle of found family and adopted friends, Lena Luthor might have been the most reserved of them all, with the exception of Oliver.

Kara knew that Oliver kept things back, that he held the trauma of his past close to his chest, but once he got to know people he did them the courtesy of dropping the pretence. It had been with her at first, but over time he became more comfortable around Alex and Maggie too, then the rest of their group eventually. He stopped pretending that he was above his own demons and, on occasion, would open up to her. The mask of stoicism dropped away, even more so after they started dating.

Lena was different. Her life with the Luthor family had taught her to never show how she really felt, to never let the world see more than the perfect façade they had to maintain in public. The only things that even seemed to draw out Lena’s inner demons were anger and alcohol. The former of which bubbled up with unbridled fury on the drive over to the Luthor Children’s Hospital.

The idea that the lead dispersal weapon which had been so instrumental in ending the Daxamite invasion could have caused the poising cases worried Kara to no end. She refused to let it show. Lena was clearly shaken up by it worse than she was, so Kara drew on Oliver’s influence on her and buried the worry so that she could take care of her friend.

Oliver’s influence on her was more prevalent than she expected on the drive over to the hospital. Almost against her better nature, she picked apart the situation like Oliver would. They had their backs to the wall completely during the invasion, the lead dispersal device had been the last resort of last resorts. It had been a risk, but a calculated one. She and Oliver had talked about it in the aftermath of the invasion and the flourishing beginnings of their relationship. He had told her that he had worried about potential unintended consequences from the device that might have affected humans with allergies or breathing problems. A little over five months since the invasion and nothing had turned up, until that morning.

At the time, Lena had assured Supergirl that the device was safe, that humans wouldn’t be affected by it at all. Kara had no doubt in her mind that Lena had been telling the truth, at least to the best of her own knowledge. If there _was_ a fault in the device, Kara was firm that Lena hadn’t known about it.

The timing of the poisonings seemed off too. If people were going to be affected by the excess lead in the atmosphere, it would have started happening a lot sooner than five months after detonation. Even if it was the gradual build-up of lead in the children that was poising them, five months seemed too long for it to have taken.

Something about the whole situation struck Kara as being wrong, but she couldn’t quite pin it down.

“Sam?” Kara spotted her friend lingering in the hallway ahead of them. “What are you doing here?”

In the admittedly short amount of time Kara had spent around Samantha Arias, Kara had decided that she was a good person. Not only was she a genuinely selfless human, she had chosen to be friends with Lena, with a Luthor, without any ulterior motive. That spoke volumes about her character, so much so that Kara was already contending with the idea of telling Sam the truth about her, were they to fully adopt Sam into their ragtag group.

On top of that Alex had obviously adored Sam’s daughter Ruby from the few interactions they’d had, and Kara had sensed the vague wave of tension between her sister and Maggie after those. With everything that they had all been dealing with over the last few weeks, Kara was wary to ask her sister outright about it. Kara knew Alex all too well, if she wanted to talk to her, then she would. Until then, Kara knew from experience that pushing her sister into a conversation she wasn’t ready for would only lead to both of them shouting things that they didn’t mean.

“Hey,” Sam strode over to join her and Lena. “Luke, one of Ruby’s friends, collapsed this morning. Lead poisoning. I came with the paramedics, his mom just got here. I saw Edge’s stunt too. This whole thing is awful.”

Maybe it was the part of her mind that had been influenced by Oliver’s scepticism in the face of any figure of power, but something about Sam’s words churned a thought loose. Edge had leapt on the poisonings quickly, maybe a little too quickly. Before the cases were even mainstream news Edge was front and centre announcing the issue and pinning the blame squarely on Lena. The man had already made a play to destroy the waterfront – potentially killing all those who had been at the statue unveiling, including Lena – in the name of urban development, then swore vengeance against Lena for her purchase of CatCo. from under him.

Poisoning children though, that seemed…Kara stopped herself from finishing that thought. Edge’s attack on the waterfront would have most certainly killed children if it had gone ahead without her and her team intervening. He had intentionally attacked the unveiling of the Supergirl statue because of the crowd it would draw, and he must have known that a decent number of the attendees would have been children. To think that he would be above poisoning children, for whatever agenda, was a fallacy. Edge was absolutely capable.

Kara winced at the line of thought she was going down. To think that someone was willing to poison children was too much, she always wanted to see the best in humanity. Intentionally going down that path seemed too much.

She wanted Oliver with her. He would be better at it. Not only that, he would, somehow, make her feel better.

“Alright, where do I sign?” Edge’s voice wafted down the corridor.

Kara felt Lena began to move in his direction before Lena even consciously realised what she was doing. With enough of a hint at superspeed that it wasn’t obvious to Sam, but fast enough that she could stop Lena short, Kara’s hand shot out and grabbed Lena’s arm. The fury that she had been directing at Edge switched focus to Kara as Lena wheeled around on her with a furious glare.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lena hissed.

Kara held up her free hand in an apologetic gesture, and whispered. “What if this is Edge?”

“What?” Lena and Sam asked in almost perfect sync.

Tentatively, Kara lessened her grip on Lena’s arm. When the Luthor heiress made no move to charge towards Edge again, Kara answered, voice hushed. “After you bought CatCo. you told me that Edge said he was coming after you, right?”

“Right.” Lena’s voice was low, and Kara could see her working through it in her mind, speeding towards the concern Kara had already found.

“If he really was behind the attack on the waterfront like we think, would you put him above doing this?” Kara asked. “I mean, he was the first person to take this to mainstream media. Edge Global doesn’t even have any investments in the medical world, how did he get wind of this before L-Corp, before anyone?”

The other two women descended into stunned silence for a moment. Kara’s gaze flickered between them both as they mulled it over. Sam looked far more apprehensive than Lena, but Kara wasn’t surprised by that at all, she wasn’t privy to all the information like Kara and Lena were.

“Even Edge…surely he wouldn’t.” Lena seemed to force the words out. Despite her hatred for Edge it seemed that even she struggled to reconcile the concept of someone choosing to target children.

“Look either way,” Sam seemed to have found her feet again. “We should get out of here. If Edge starts throwing allegations at you now, with all this media around, it’s just going to pour gasoline on the fire.”

“Sam’s right,” Kara jumped on it. “Let’s get back to CatCo. and regroup. I’ll call Oliver and Alex, they can help.”

Sam had met Alex before, but as far as she was aware, Alex was FBI. That would make enough sense to Sam, family could do favour for family, even if it meant stretching a few rules. Without the D.E.O. getting mentioned, Kara was certain she could sweep Alex’s involvement away with the cover story they had already sold Sam.

Oliver would be a different story. During the two proper girl’s nights they had all shared, Kara had mentioned Oliver to Sam, but never as anything more substantial than her boyfriend. When Sam had pressed her for a little more information about her _“sexy mystery man”_ Kara had just offered up that he travelled a lot for work, which was why Sam hadn’t seen him around. She would have to sneak a conversation with Oliver so they could invent a cover story.

Kara really hated lying to her friends.

_XXX_

The moment they had crossed through into the D.E.O. on Earth-38, Maggie had dashed off to help support the highly increased police presence around both L-Corp and the Luthor Children’s Hospital. With his only burning desire being his worry for Kara, and Lena, Oliver headed off to find J’onn for a situation report.

Oliver could certainly understand the public outrage. From what he had heard, after The Undertaking the police presence around both Queen Consolidated and the Queen Estate had been almost constant. Thea had later told him that it had been one of the many reasons she had chosen to live mostly with Roy when Oliver had been away from Star City after The Undertaking.

While, mercifully, no one had yet died from the reported poisonings, the affected seemed to be only children, which undoubtedly meant even more outrage. There was little doubt in Oliver’s mind that the situation would get significantly worse.

When Oliver reached mission control at the D.E.O. J’onn was nowhere to be found.

“Winn,” Oliver called out as he strode across to the computer bank. “Where’s J’onn?”

“Oh,” Winn span around in his chair to face Oliver. “Papa Bear is on a personal errand to Mars, Alex is in charge.”

Oliver sighed. He didn’t have the time or inclination to deal with the idea that J’onn was off running personal errands while the city needed their help. “Then where’s Alex?”

“I, uh, I have no idea.”

Oliver resisted the urge to hit something with great effort. “Just give me the rundown of what’s been going on, and tell me where I can find Kara and Lena.”

Ten minutes and a rough briefing later, Oliver was astride his bike barrelling towards CatCo., where Winn assured him Kara and Lena were heading to.

Unbeknownst to him, Oliver had come to the exact same conclusion as Kara. As soon as Winn had finished playing him the initial news footage of Edge announcing the tragedy and directly connecting it to Lena, Oliver’s suspicions had been raised. Once already he had turned down an opportunity to take Edge off the board for good, or at the least scare him into staying out of the way. If it turned out that Edge was responsible for the poisonings, Oliver resolved himself to not let Kara stop him from doing something about it.

He made it to CatCo. less than a minute behind Kara and Lena, catching a glimpse of Kara’s golden blonde locks just as the elevator doors snapped shut. Quickly saddling into the next available one, Oliver rode it up to the bullpen, and dashed out onto the floor to catch up with the others.

“…every report they have on the outbreak,” Lena’s voice carried back to him as Oliver approached them. “I also need the victims medical reports and I wanna see every bit of data Morgan Edge has seen.”

As Lena’s secretary scampered away to gather the information she had asked for, Kara must have sensed his presence. She turned her head to look behind her while he was still a few meters out and smiled with relief. Lena and the woman she was with disappeared into the office that had once belonged to Cat Grant while Kara lingered waiting for him. Oliver caught up to her, reflexively tangled one hand in one of her own and dipped down to press a kiss to her lips.

“I got Winn to brief me, but how are things looking?” He asked as he pulled away.

Kara grimaced a little. “Not good. Lena is completely convinced this is her fault, but I’m thinking it might be Edge, out for revenge.” 

Oliver felt a wave of uncalled for pride run through him at Kara and he having come to the same conclusion without so much as having spoken to each other.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Oliver affirmed her.

“How’d you even know this was happening?” Kara asked him

“Alex got in touch with Maggie, we were having lunch,” Oliver offered her a half truth. Alex had been the one to get in touch with Maggie, but her visit to Earth-1 had hardly been a social call. “We should…” He nodded towards the office Lena had gone into.

“Not yet,” Kara shook her head. “She’s with Sam.”

Oliver recognised the name, Kara had mentioned her a few times to him. L-Corp’s new CFO and apparently an old friend of Lena’s. When Oliver had slipped a bug into the L-Corp system on his first ever meeting with Lena Luthor during the Cadmus hunt – much to Winn’s reluctance because _“Kara will not forget about this is she catches us”_ – Sam Arias had come up only as a Junior VP working out of the Metropolis branch. Oliver had doubled checked the data he and Winn had scooped from the L-Corp system when he had first heard the woman’s name come up in a social aspect. By all accounts she seemed a perfectly decent person, but she was nowhere near their inner circle.

“How much does she know about me?” He asked.

“Other than that we’re together” Kara shrugged, “Nothing.”

Oliver sighed. Sam had no idea who Oliver Queen was beyond being Kara’s boyfriend. He could walk into the office and claim to be a total stranger since it was likely she had never seen any photographs of him, but that would only present complications further down the line. In the short term, it would make it easier for him to help with the current crisis without worrying about Sam questioning his skills and his connection to Kara. Long term, it had more complications that it was worth dealing with.

“Alright, standard play,” Oliver began. “Black ops, we met through Alex, right now I’m on shore leave.”

Kara took the lie in her stride with remarkable grace for a woman as uncomfortable with lying as she was. Oliver wondered if the worry about the affected children was getting to her more than Kara was letting on. After all, even if it _was_ Lena’s device that was malfunctioning, Supergirl had been the one to press the button. Oliver had done his best to take that responsibility from her, knowing what it would do to her, and when he had failed he watched how each and every Daxamite life lost because of the device had weighed down on Kara. If the device was the culprit for the poisoning cases, Oliver knew that Kara would take that weight on too.

“Got it.” Kara nodded her understanding of the lie and began to head towards the office.

Oliver made a conscious effort to shift himself into his Green Arrow posture, which – Diggle had told him on multiple occasions – gave him the same stance as a military man, if a little rougher. With only second hand information to work on, Oliver had to assume all of the stops would be necessary to convince Sam. Better to oversell than undersell when it came to his cover.

“What if it’s true,” Oliver could hear Lena’s voice through the open doors of the office. He made a mental note to remind her to close the doors when she planned on discussing sensitive information in a newsroom, whether she owned the company or not. “I told Supergirl that the lead in the device was safe for humans. She wouldn’t have used it if it wasn’t safe.”

As she finished, Kara crossed the threshold with Oliver a pace behind her.

“But using it saved all of us.” Sam insisted, then looked up at the new arrivals.

Kara, with all the airs of a woman not internally freaking out like Oliver knew she was, dropped into the empty space beside Sam while Oliver pulled the double doors shut behind him. Trying to maintain some semblance of cover, Oliver stayed somewhat stiff, but offered a hand to Sam.

“Lieutenant Oliver Queen.” He introduced himself, a little brashly.

Sam shook the offered hand. “Samantha Arias.”

Unlike the rest of Kara’s friends, she didn’t stoop to the teasing at his being Kara’s boyfriend. The crisis on their hands was more important. Even in that situation Oliver had no doubts that, were she with them, Maggie would have made some kind of wisecrack. As much as Oliver appreciated Maggie’s relentless sarcasm, even in the face of imminent disaster, he admired Sam’s cool, business-like edge.

“Kara said you’d be able to help us out.” Sam continued as she let go of the handshake.

“Yes, ma’am. Ten years military experience, seven of those black ops,” Oliver lied smoothly. It wasn’t even that far from the truth. A little over seven years prior Amanda Waller had first dragged him into ARGUS employ, and he had begun his real journey into being The Green Arrow proper. “I’ve got enough contacts state side to get us help in places even Lena can’t reach.”

Sam offered him a faintly impressed nod in acknowledgment.

Oliver rounded the sofa that Kara and Sam were sat on in order to keep himself out of Sam’s line of sight, then caught Lena’s eye. With the hope that she would catch onto the lie, he offered her a conspiratorial wink. After her cool non-reaction to it, Oliver wondered why he had even expected her to struggle. Lena had been raised pretending to be something she wasn’t, to show the rest of the world a version of herself that wasn’t real. Of course she would be able to take on his façade with perfect elegance.

“Miss Luthor.”

Instant recognition at the voice snapped Oliver’s attention to the doors to the office. James Olsen lingered just inside of the door he had half pulled open.

“Mister Olsen.” Lena’s voice was a mixture of surprise and distaste.

James walked the rest of the way into the room and the door swung shut behind him.

“Come to tell Kara I told you so?” Lena scorned. James knew full well that Lena knew who Kara was, the animosity that Oliver sensed existed between James and himself seemed doubly so between James and Lena. “Another Luthor takes innocent lives, news at eleven?”

The way Kara’s gaze snapped from Lena to James, from sympathetic to mistrustful, didn’t escape Oliver’s attention.

“Miss Luthor, despite our differences, I would hope by now that you would recognize that I see you as more than just an extension of your brother,” James said. Despite the apparent sincerity at the words, Oliver felt his intuition pick up on the scent of deceit. It wasn’t just some performance for Sam, the one person in the room who didn’t know the secrets that the rest of them knew, Oliver could tell that much. There was something else about it, some deeper motive. He took the unoccupied space on the sofa besides Lena before continuing. “However, I do think that you should get ahead of this thing. Which, in my opinion...I think you should step down from CatCo, so whatever we report, good or bad, comes off as truthful.”

 _And there it is,_ Oliver thought to himself. From what he had glimpsed from Kara, Lena and James hadn’t had the best working relationship after she had taken over CatCo. James had been left in charge by Cat, and had taken it as a personal affront when Lena had bought the company and decided to take a more active role in it’s operations. Why Cat Grant had ever left the company to James, a man who’s entire journalistic career was built on his lucking out into being liked by Clark Kent, was beyond Oliver.

“No, that would look like an admission of guilt.” Kara jumped in.

“No, Kara, he's right.” Lena answered.

Oliver could tell that Lena was going to continue, and from the look of Kara and Sam, neither of them were going to stop her. Maybe they both trusted Lena’s judgment, maybe neither of them really understood the magnitude of what would happen if Lena was responsible for the poisonings. Whatever it was, they had clearly never been there. Oliver had. He had watched The Undertaking destroy his mother’s life, his city’s faith in his family. He had watched his own sins bring Queen Consolidated to ruin under Isabel Rochev. He had watched his father become a murderer in the eyes of the entire country. He could tell that Lena’s resignation was fuelled not just by concern for the public, not in full. It was her own self-loathing more than anything else. Part of Lena still felt mired by her family, wanted the public to crucify her.

“The hell he is,” Oliver snapped, uncaring if it spoiled his character in front of Sam. “Lena, one way or another this is out there. Now, you may be responsible for this, you may not. My money is on not. Kara believes in you, and so do I. But if it is, you need to control the narrative,” When both Lena and James threw him near disgusted expressions, Oliver pressed on. “Even if, **_if_** _,_ your device is responsible for this, you are not. The Daxamite invasion had the whole planet backed into a corner, any rational person would have made the exact same decision as you, as Supergirl,” Oliver hated putting pressure on Kara, but with Sam in the room he could hardly acknowledge the fact that he had been part of the decision making process himself. “The world doesn’t know that, and they _should._ You refused to take credit at the time, now Edge is using that against you. Even if you step down, so what? You still own CatCo. so no matter what people are going to accuse the paper of bias. You’d be better off using it to get your story out there, instead of relying on whatever merge scarps of mercy Edge _might_ let you have.”

Oliver felt a wave of righteous fury wash over him, the wave that had fuelled the power of his retort, and it felt good.

“Mister Queen—” James had the good sense to opt for formalities with Sam in the room, but Lena cut him off.

“He’s right, Mister Olsen,” Lena seemed almost surprised that she was saying those words herself. “I’m a Luthor. No matter what happens the public is against me, I might as well use my influence to _try_ and get my story across. Even if nobody listens.”

Lena caught Oliver’s eyes as she finished, and he offered her a nod of reassurance.

She had clearly realised the same thing that he had done, he was the only person in the room who fully understood what she had been going through. When Oliver had explained his history, at least the relevant parts, during the flight to Lian Yu he had raised Lena on the comms while he told it. Mostly down to the fact that had didn’t want to have to repeat it, or have Lena hear a compressed version told by Kara, Alex, or Maggie. Part of the story he had told them had been about his mother, her involvement in Malcolm’s Undertaking, and then about his father, about how the whole world had seen footage of him killing another man, albeit by accident, thanks to Adrian Chase. Oliver had been in the exact position Lena was in, in that moment, more times than he liked to think about.

_“Where is she? Where’s Lena Luthor?!”_

Oliver was moving towards the door before any of the others were so much as thinking about getting to their feet. He saw the man storming across the bullpen and Lena’s petite assistant crossing the room to try and stop him. with very little thought beyond shutting down what looked to be building to a violent altercation, Oliver wrenched open the office doors and made toward the man.

“I need to see her. She needs to answer for my son.” The man raged as Oliver stepped up next to the assistant, Eve, if he remembered rightly.

Both Eve and the man seized up for a moment, and when Eve’s focus turned back over her shoulder, Oliver knew why. The tactical part of his brain tried to tell him to bawl Kara out for letting Lena leave her office while there was a man who was clearly hostile towards her in the building. The rational part of him quickly told him that for one, Lena Luthor wasn’t the type to do anything simply because she was told to, and two, Kara could move faster than most humans could think, so Lena wouldn’t be at any substantial risk. When the man’s attention shifted to Lena, Eve scuttered off towards the elevator, hopefully to call security. Then, the man tried to close in on Lena, but Oliver firmly put himself between the two before he could make so much as a step. Oliver had no doubt that he was the better fighter, no matter who the man was.

For a moment, the man seemed to size Oliver up, questioning if he could take him in a fight. Clearly he was, at the very least, sensible, because he backed down after a moment. Though his gaze was focused solely on Lena.

“You know he stopped breathing?” The man spat out. “They had to put a tube down his throat. My boy is twelve years old. He is supposed to be laughing, outside playing, not stuck in some hospital with the doctors telling me they don't know how to fix him,”

Oliver’s mind turned to William then. Without much conscious thought, Oliver wondered what he would be like in the other man’s position; if it were Willian lying in a hospital bed. Would he have been able to compartmentalise and look at the situation objectively? Or would he barrel straight after the person he thought was responsible without a second thought?

“You rich people, you think you can do whatever you want, that we don't matter,” The man continued. “My son matters.”

Oliver moved to usher Lena back into the office but she spoke before he could.

“I’m sorry.”

 _“ **You're sorry**?” _The man bellowed, and Oliver could sense the people behind him flinch. For a moment, Oliver readied himself to intervene and stop the man from physically attacking Lena but CatCo. security rushed from the elevator with Eve in tow. “You're gonna answer for what you did to my son,” The man raged as the two guards grabbed hold of him. “For what you did to all of them!”

Everything in his demeanour screamed unbridled rage to Oliver. If it hadn’t been for the timely arrival of the security guards, Oliver had no doubt that he would have been forced to defuse the situation himself. As the man was carried around the corner and into the elevator, Oliver finally turned around and refocused on the others.

“I want your best reporter on this. I’m not hiding anything,” Lena addressed James without actually looking at him. The implication of her words being _‘your best journalist who isn’t Kara’_. “Set a press conference for later today.”

_XXX_

Despite Oliver and Kara’s best attempts to convince her otherwise, Lena went ahead with the press conference. It was a reckless idea, they all knew it. Oliver might have been able to convince her to not step down from CatCo. but it seemed as though Lena would not be dissuaded from putting her life on the line by holding a public press conference. The compromise Oliver suggested had been holding the event within L-Corp’s reception area, there was more than enough room, but Lena had still refused. When she had done, Oliver couldn’t help but to wonder if she was doing it on purpose. One person had already gotten into CatCo.’s bullpen trying to get at her, clearly the people who had been affected by the crisis were out for blood. Lena knew that as well as Oliver did. Which left him wondering if she was putting her life on the line on purpose in some self-sacrificing attempt to offer the people justice.

With very little hesitation, Oliver had offered that particular insight to Kara, and she had agreed with him. Oliver hadn’t really been expecting it. Kara had a tenacity to always insist on seeing the very, _very,_ best in her friends, and Oliver had doubted that she would be willing to accept the idea that Lena was readily throwing herself to the dogs. The reasons that Kara had so easily agreed with him hadn’t had the time to fester in Oliver’s mind as he ran through the logistics of trying to safeguard Lena’s press conference. Briefly, he considered calling in the team from Star City, but he didn’t want to have to put them under any extra pressure. While the city was mostly quiet, he didn’t want to risk pulling them away, because his karma would have guaranteed that decision leading to a major screw up. Instead, they agreed that Kara would blend with the crowd, while Oliver watched from the outside, and James went onstage with Lena.

Things had seemed quiet when Lena first moved up on stage. The crowd’s angered shouts had died down as she spoke, and Oliver couldn’t pick up anything in the crowd as his gaze swept back and forth over them. Then, Kara turned to look at him. The middle and forefinger of her right hand pointed out, and she pulled her right thumb upright with her left hand. Oliver understood the signal instantly, she had heard a gun cocking. He gave her a nod to confirm he was following her, and snapped to attention, staring at the crowd with extra intensity. Kara turned left, so Oliver focused on those she wasn’t looking at.

He spotted her fractionally too late.

Oliver leapt from his viewpoint on the slightly raised plant-bed and sprinted across the plaza towards what he had seen. A woman in a black hoodie, wrenching a gun from a deep pocket and bringing it up to a firing angle. Even as he pushed through the crowd, Oliver worried he wouldn’t make it there in time. Kara’s name was springing from his lips in a muted call for aid, but even then he knew she wouldn’t register it fast enough without exposing herself.

Oliver’s hand slammed into the woman’s arm just as the gun reached the horizontal. His grip snatched around her wrist and jerked it upright as she squeezed the trigger. The first shot fired upward, fractions of a degree too high to hit anyone in the plaza. The sound of the shot caused the people there to start to scatter. On reflex, Oliver continued to push her firing arm upwards, and made no attempt to stop his momentum. He smashed into her at full sprint speed and the two of them went down. Oliver twisted with the fall, trying to keep her firing arm aimed toward the sky, and hoping that Kara would be quick enough to catch any stray bullets before they could do any damage

His back collided with the concrete with a thud that drove a lungful of air from his body. The way he had twisted to keep the gun from aiming at anyone had also put him half-under the gun-woman, and her head slammed into his shoulder as they hit the ground. Shoving the pain that raked through him down, Oliver rolled them both over. With practiced movements, Oliver pinned the wrist attached to her firing-hand down, hard into the concrete, and his other hand shot to her throat, holding her down.

Instinct had told Oliver to make sure she was down for certain. The only way to knock her out clean would have been to connect a fist with her face, and the kick back into the concrete would have more than likely caused serious damage. The parental part of him couldn’t do it. Oliver was almost certain that the women he had just taken down had attempted to kill Lena because her child was in the hospital. He couldn’t be certain that he wouldn’t have done the same thing in her place.

That had drawn on an empathy that Oliver didn’t even know that he possessed, and he hated what it felt like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, like I said at the start I need you guys to let me know about when you want the next chapter posted. Also, I'm wondering what your opinions are on Lena. A commenter mentioned a while back about setting up Lena and Sam as this story goes forward. That's definitely an option, and I can see myself working that into the plot without any real changes needed. Let me know what you guys think on that too. I am ruling out Lena/James though, I never liked that relationship, but then I'm not a big fan of James at all. 
> 
> See you in the next one! And here’s your reminder to follow me on Twitter @JRW9699. I’ll start using it again soon, promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's your reminder to go follow me on Twitter @JRW9699


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